China and South Korea opened their East Asian Games campaigns yesterday by each earning two gold medals, with the Chinese winning in snooker and cycling and the South Koreans finding success in shooting and English billiards.
In an all-Chinese men’s snooker final, Tian Pengfei beat Yu Delu 4-2, while Ma Liyun crossed first in the women’s BMX cycling finals, finishing in 35.746 seconds.
Ma finished just ahead of Ayaka Miwa of Japan and more than three seconds ahead of Jiang Nannan of China.
PHOTO: AFP
South Korea’s reigning 50m pistol Olympic champion Jin Jong-oh scored 685.8 points in the 10m competition, narrowly beating teammate Lee Dae-myung by 0.4 points. Tomoyuki Matsuda of Japan took bronze with 683.2 points.
Hwang Chul-ho staved off Eric Lee of Hong Kong 3-1 in the men’s English billiards final.
China also advanced in table tennis, moving into the finals of both the men’s and women’s team competitions. Led by Olympic silver medalist Wang Hao, the Chinese men defeated Hong Kong 3-0, setting up a showdown against Japan, who beat South Korea 3-0. The Chinese women swept Taiwan 3-0, earning them a final spot against Hong Kong, who eliminated Japan 3-1.
In men’s singles, Xu Xin upset top-seeded Jun Mizutani of Japan 4-1 to move into the semi-finals along with teammate Zhang Jike, who edged Kaii Yoshida of Japan 4-3.
Host Hong Kong also had an impressive first day, winning two golds. While it is ruled by China, the former British colony fields separate teams in international sports events.
In the men’s BMX final, Steven Wong won gold, crossing the line in 30.181 seconds, just ahead of Masahiro Sampei of Japan. Zhao Zhiyang of China was third, 1.646 seconds behind.
PHOTO: AFP/ASIA TOUR
A Hong Kong squad led by Marco Fu beat Taiwan 3-1 in the men’s snooker team final.
Hong Kong also guaranteed themselves two squash golds by sweeping the men’s and women’s semi-finals without dropping a set. Lau Siu-wai beat Lee Se-hyun of South Korea and Lee Ho-yin beat Shinnosuke Tsukue of Japan. Annie Au and Rebecca Chiu both shut out Japanese opponents.
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