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.
PHOTO: WANG YI-SUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
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
Barcelona’s Ferran Torres scored twice on Sunday to help secure a late 4-2 comeback win at Atletico Madrid in a pulsating La Liga clash that took the Catalan side back to the top of the table. Barca have 60 points and a game in hand after last week’s postponement of their home game with CA Osasuna. They are level on points with Real Madrid, who won 2-1 at Villarreal on Saturday. “I am happy and proud of this team,” Barcelona head coach Hansi Flick told a news conference. “They never give up... It’s a great three points and we are happy to
Paris Saint-Germain on Tuesday held their nerve to beat Liverpool 4-1 on penalties and reach the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals after their tie finished one-apiece on aggregate, while Bayern Munich saw off Bayer 04 Leverkusen to complete a 5-0 win over both legs. Lamine Yamal and Raphinha fired Barcelona into the next round as the Catalans bested SL Benfica 3-1, and Inter booked a last-eight meeting with Bayern by seeing off Feyenoord 2-1. At Anfield, Ousmane Dembele netted the only goal of the night as PSG bounced back from Liverpool’s late winner last week to force the tie to extra-time and penalties. Maligned
Taiwan’s Lin Chun-yi on Wednesday inflicted a first-round defeat on former badminton world No. 1 Viktor Axelsen at the All England Open. Lin came out of top after a back-and-forth first game before Axelsen dominated the second, but the Dane was not able to keep that form in the decider as Lin reeled off six points in a row on the way to a 21-19, 13-21, 21-11 victory. “If I don’t play my best, everyone can win against me,” said Axelsen, the world No. 4. “Today’s opponent played a fantastic game; it was disappointing, but that is how it is.” “I just tried
Two-time Indian Wells champion Iga Swiatek on Thursday avenged her shock Paris Olympics loss to Zheng Qinwen with a 6-3, 6-3 win over the Chinese eighth seed, setting up a semi-final against 17-year-old Russian Mirra Andreeva in the California desert. In the men’s singles, Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz put on a show with his acrobatic shotmaking under the lights to close out the day’s action, overcoming a 4-1 second-set deficit to defeat Francisco Cerundolo 6-3, 7-6 (7/4), while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei crashed out of the women’s doubles. Swiatek, one of the gold medal favorites when she lost to eventual champion Zheng in the
RSS