Chinese women and Japanese men split the eight swimming golds on offer at the East Asian Games yesterday.
After four days at the pool, Japan holds a slight lead with 17 golds to China’s 15.
China won in all four women’s events: the 100m backstroke, the 400m freestyle, the 200m breaststroke and the 4x100m freestyle relay. World championship bronze medalist Gao Chang set a Games record 59.77 seconds in the 100m backstroke.
The Japanese men won the 50m breaststroke, the 100m freestyle, the 100m butterfly and the 100m backstroke, with world championship silver medalist Ryosuke Irie setting a Games record of 52.76 seconds in the last event.
Also yesterday, China beat Japan 3-2 to win men’s volleyball gold.
The two nations were to face off for the women’s volleyball gold medal later yesterday.
Elsewhere, Japan sewed up men’s tennis gold, with both Tatsuma Ito and Yuichi Sugita winning their semi-finals.
TAIWANESE STARS
The only medal for Taiwan yesterday was won by Wang Yeu-tzuoo, who took bronze in the men’s singles tennis when he lost 7-6, 6-3 to Ito. Ito will face compatriot Sugita Yuichi in the final today.
Taiwan’s Chang Kai-chen beat Misaki Doi of Japan 6-4, 6-3 in the women’s singles tennis semi-finals yesterday to set up a clash with China’s Zhang Shuai in the gold-medal match today.
Taiwanese women’s doubles team Hsieh Su-wei and Chuang Chia-jung beat Sun Sheng-nan and Zhang Shuai of China 6-3, 2-6, 6-0. They play Kim So-jung and Lee Jin-a of South Korea for gold today.
In the men’s doubles, Taiwan’s Lee Hsin-han and Yi Chu-huan defeated China’s Gong Mao-xin and Li Zhe 6-3, 6-4. The Taiwanese will face Zeng Shao-xuan and Zhang Ze of China in the gold-medal match today.
In squash, Hong Kong won the women’s team competition, beating Japan and adding to its golds in the men’s and women’s singles.
In weightlifting, North Korea’s Pak Hyon Suk won the women’s 63kg title and South Korea’s Kim Kwang-hoon took out the men’s 77kg category.
Eight more golds were in contention at the pool later yesterday.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY STAFF WRITER
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