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.
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