Mariana Mohammad crashed out of the Asian Games in a bloody accident that marred the women’s time trial yesterday, while three Kazakhstan field hockey players were kicked out of Guangzhou in a case of national identity fraud.
Mohammad, a 32-year-old Malaysian cyclist, had the leading intermediate time when she collided with a fence on the side of the course and her bike cartwheeled. Malaysian team officials said she had a broken collarbone and had a deep cut on her chin, but was in a stable condition after treatment at Guangdong Provincial Hospital.
Lee Min-hye went on to win the 35.6km race in 49 minutes, 38.35 seconds, giving South Korea victories in both the men’s and women’s time trials. China’s Fan Jiang was 26 seconds behind and took the silver, while Thailand’s Nontasin Chanpeng took bronze.
Choe Hyeong-min gave South Korea their first gold in the men’s time trial in 24 years when he completed three laps of the 17.8km course in 1 hour, 8 minutes, 16.12 seconds. Eugen Wacker of Kyrgyzstan took the silver, with Hossein Askari of Iran earning bronze.
“Though I targeted the gold medal before the race, it is still beyond my expectations,” said Choe, who is now turning his attention to trying for gold at the London 2012 Olympics.
South Korea swept all four gold medals at golf, but there was almost as much interest at the rear of the field, where Ali Ahmad Fazel of Afghanistan closed with a 40-over final round of 112 to finish at an endurance-testing 179-over.
“I’m satisfied with what I did,” said Fazel, a student who practices at Afghanistan’s only golf course — a nine-hole facility at Kabul. “I want to be a professional golfer someday. I just want to work hard.”
Ra Un-sim scored twice in extra-time as two-time defending champions North Korea beat archrivals South Korea 3-1 to reach the women’s soccer final.
Japan edged China 1-0 with a goal in extra-time in the earlier semi-final. It was a rare setback for China, who are dominating the standings with 138 gold and 270 medals overall.
Two of those came as expected, with Li Xiaoxia rallying from a 3-0 deficit to beat Chinese teammate Guo Yue in the women’s table tennis final and Ma Long defeating Wang Hao in the men’s decider.
Another bankable gold medal was delivered in the women’s badminton final, with Wang Shixian beating Chinese teammate Wang Xin 21-18, 21-15.
Indonesia picked up another dragon boat gold, the men winning the 250m straight race.
Kenki Sato won the individual eventing gold medal for Japan, who also won the team eventing title at equestrian.
Those were among 30 golds on the eighth day of competition.
The featured men’s field hockey match featured India edging archrivals Pakistan 3-2 to secure a semi-final spot.
The women’s field hockey continued after Kazakhstan was stripped of its competition points and dropped to last place ahead of their final preliminary match against India.
Technical delegate Mathavas Deavadas said Alessya Pyotukh, Yulliya Mikheichik and Anastassiya Chsherbakova “admitted they represented Belarus” at a World Cup qualifying tournament in April.
Asian Games organizers have awarded four of the matches to Kazakhstan’s opponents with a score of 5-0, while retaining South Korea’s 10-3 scoreline because of a bigger victory margin.
SEE GOLD ON PAGE 19
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