Bahrain’s imported talent notched up two long-distance titles at the Asian Games yesterday, but there were no doubles for Ali Hasan Mahboob or India’s Preeja Sreedharan.
Mahboob, previously known as Kenyan Silas Kirui before changing allegiance to Bahrain, had wrapped up the 5,000m title in the week and came into the 10,000m as defending champion and favorite.
However, the pace set by Qatar’s Kenyan-born Essa Rashed cut him out of contention, little-known Ethiopian-born teammate Bilisuma Gelassa just getting past the Qatari for gold in a sprint for the line.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Mahboob clung on to claim bronze and ensure a podium, like that of the men’s 5,000m, made up of three African-born runners.
In the women’s 5,000m, there was similar heartbreak for Sreedharan, the newly crowned Asiad 10,000m champion, who mistimed her sprint finish by a matter of a couple of meters and had to be happy with silver behind Bahrain’s Mimi Gebregeiorges.
As the Ethiopian-born Gebregeiorges neared the line, it was obvious she didn’t have much more to give, but Sreedharan had gifted her too much coming around the bend from 250m.
PHOTO: REUTERS
China’s defending champion and current Asian champ Xue Fei could only finish in seventh position, almost 29 seconds off the pace.
The relays saw Yao Li become the first Chinese male athlete to win two gold medals in athletics in one Asiad when he raced home for the host country’s first 4x100m relay victory since the 1990 Asian Games in Beijing. The Taiwanese quartet finished third.
The relay gold, coupled with Li Yanxi’s successful defense of his triple jump gold crown means China top the athletics medals table with 12 golds, 14 silvers and eight bronzes, with just the men and women’s marathons to be run today.
PHOTO: AFP
Indian Ashwini Akkunji also claimed a second gold running the third leg of India’s victorious women’s 4x400m relay team to add to her individual 400m hurdles title.
However, there was no third gold for Japan’s sprint queen Chisato Fukushima, who was left too much to do down the final stretch of the women’s 4x100m relay, won by Thailand, with China getting silver.
Saudi Arabia won the men’s 4x400m relay.
In the field, there was a welcome 1-2 for Uzbekistan in the women’s high jump, Svetlana Radzivil pipping teammate Nadiya Dusanova by 2cm with her best of 1.95m.
Japan’s Yukifumi Murakami won the men’s javelin.
The men’s shot put crown was easily wrapped up by Saudi Arabia’s Asian record holder Sultan al-Habashi, his sixth and final effort measuring 20.57m. Taiwan’s Chang Ming-huang finished third behind China’s Zhang Jun.
? softball
Staff writer, with CNA
Taiwan had to settle for a bronze medal in the softball tournament yesterday after losing 2-1 to China.
The result was disappointing for Taiwan, the defending silver medalists, who had entertained hopes of winning gold after going undefeated in the preliminary round.
However, after losing 5-2 to Japan on Thursday, they fell behind to China 2-0 in the first inning of yesterday’s game and never recovered.
Taiwan tried to mount a rally in the sixth and scored a run on a sacrifice fly, but Li Chiu-ching and Liu Hui-fang left the potential tying run stranded at second base.
Later yesterday, Japan claimed gold with a 2-0 win over China.
? basketball
AP, GUANGZHOU, China
Former Dallas Mavericks center Wang Zhizhi scored 20 points to lead China to their second straight Asian Games title with a 77-71 win over South Korea.
The hosts came into the final after seven straight wins, including narrow victories over Iran in the semis and Qatar in the quarters.
South Korea opened the second quarter with a 16-4 run to take a 37-31 lead, but China stormed back before halftime to take a 43-37 advantage.
China never trailed after that, though they weren’t able to put the game out of reach.
See Stories on page 19
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but