There was doping. There was a death. There were more medals and more countries than ever before. And there was no stopping the Chinese.
Tiny Qatar's effort to prove that the Arab world is ready to host the Olympics came to a close on Friday as the 15-day Asian Games, the biggest sporting event in the world's most populous continent, wrapped up with an unexpected bonus: the host meeting Iraq in the soccer final, the one event nearly everyone here watches.
Just about everywhere else, however, the games were a celebration of Chinese prowess and possibly a harbinger of things to come when Beijing hosts the 2008 Olympics.
PHOTO: AFP
The Chinese claimed 165 of the 428 golds. The closest competitors were South Korea, with just 58, and Japan with 50.
"I think the Chinese dominance of the games should serve as an impetus for the rest of us to work harder," conceded Tsutomu Hayashi, the head of the Japanese delegation. "There is much for us to learn."
From the track to the pool to the beach volleyball courts, the Chinese demonstrated yet again that they are by far the strongest sports power in Asia.
China did so with an often young team that they are cultivating for the 2008 Olympics.
China brought the largest team to the Asian Games -- 647 athletes.
Of those, 413 were participating in their first major multi-sport games and averaged just 23.3 years old.
Liu Xiang, the world record-holder in the 110m hurdles, headlined China's athletics team.
But he didn't need to shine, breezing to an easy victory in 13.15 seconds for an Asian Games record, nearly half a second slower than his world mark of 12.88.
China had a harder time in the pool, where it had to split the golds with Japan, and South Korea proved strong in the team sports, defeating Chinese opponents in field hockey and volleyball.
In the lesser known sports, the Chinese also allowed others a moment in the limelight. India, for example, won in the tag-like game of kabaddi.
Elsewhere, the Chinese juggernaut was nearly invincible, ending Japan's 20-year dominance in judo and putting a stop to its undefeated status in synchronized swimming as well.
New Taipei Kings guard Jeremy Lin on Friday was named the Taiwan Professional Basketball League’s (TPBL) Player of the Month, the first domestic player to win the award, while the Hsinchu Toplus Lioneers are to welcome their third head coach in less than a year. Lin averaged 22 points, 5.4 rebounds and 6.6 assists over five games in October and last month, helping the Kings to second in the standings with a 4-2 record as of Friday. The Kings last night defeated the Lioneers 96-78 to move level with the top-of-the-table Formosa Dreamers (5-2), while in the night game, the New Taipei
Taiwan on Wednesday finished with 15 medals at the World Taekwondo Poomsae Championships in Hong Kong, taking home four gold, five silver and six bronze medals across the age group divisions. Taiwan ranked third on the medal table after South Korea with 17 golds and the US with eight golds at the five-day competition. “Your athletes have proven themselves as the best in the world,” World Taekwondo president Choue Chung-won said at the closing ceremony of the martial art contest that was attended by a record 1,727 athletes from around the world. On the first day of the competition at the Hong Kong
TO NO AVAIL: The Denver Nuggets’ Serbian center Nikola Jokic surpassed his 53-point performance in the 2023 Western Conference semi-finals against Phoenix The Washington Wizards withstood a 56-point explosion from Denver star Nikola Jokic to beat the Nuggets 122-113 on Saturday and snap their 16-game NBA losing streak. Jokic, who won his third NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) award last season, posted a career scoring high — surpassing a 53-point performance in game four of the 2023 Western Conference semi-finals against Phoenix and a 50-point regular-season best against Sacramento in 2021. The Serbian big man added 16 rebounds and eight assists, but it was all to no avail as Washington, buoyed by 39 points from Jordan Poole, won for the first time
Taiwan’s Lin Cheng-jing won a bronze medal in the clean and jerk in the women’s under-49 kg division at the 2024 IWF World Weightlifting Championships in Bahrain on Saturday. Lin won her first medal at a World Weightlifting Championships for lifting 107kg in the clean and jerk in her weight class, 2kg more than Rosegie Ramos of the Philippines. However, Ramos won bronze for the combined lift after topping Lin by 5kg in the snatch. Ri Song-gum of North Korea won gold in the division’s combined lift with a total of 213kg, while Xiang Linxiang of China took silver with
RSS