South Korean Park Tae-hwan’s Asian Games heartbreak deepened yesterday as China’s Ning Zetao mercilessly crushed his hopes in the 100m freestyle.
Marathon man Kosuke Hagino collected his seventh medal of the Games for Japan, but China consolidated their lead over their fierce rivals in the gold medal count, ending the day 18-11 ahead after splitting the evening’s six finals.
Already beaten into bronze place in the 200m and 400m freestyle, former Olympic champion Park was blown away by Ning, who dominated the 100m from start to finish, powering home in a new Asian record of 47.70 seconds.
Photo: AFP
Park had to settle for silver, over a second behind at the Incheon aquatics arena named after him.
“I’m very excited with my gold medals,” said Ning, who has overcome a bone infection in his knee that caused severe pain when he kicks.
“They are very important to me and to the team. I broke the Asian record and I broke 48 seconds, which is very pleasing,” he added.
As consolation, Park’s silver gave him a 19th Asian Games medal to tie former shooter Park Byung-taek for most medals won by a South Korean athlete at the quadrennial multisport event.
“It shows how long I’ve been around that I’ve managed to win so many medals,” said Park, who turns 25 tomorrow.
“But I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have regrets. I will do everything I can to win more tomorrow,” he added.
Park has confessed to struggling with the suffocating home pressure and looked tight on the blocks. A terrible start left the local hero with no chance of catching the red-hot Ning, who swam a blistering 47.08 anchor leg in Wednesday’s 4x100m relay victory.
The Korean will have a final chance to salvage his pride in today’s 1,500m, although Olympic champion Sun Yang, who won the 400m, will be firm favorite.
Japan’s Ryosuke Irie completed the 100m and 200m backstroke double — as he did in Guangzhou four years ago — by streaking to victory in the four-lap race in a new Games record of 1 minute, 53.26 seconds, over a second and a half quicker than China’s Xu Jiayi.
“It’s a thrill to win a gold medal at three Asian Games,” said Irie, who also won the 200m title in Doha eight years ago.
“Hopefully we can keep it going in tomorrow’s medley relay,” he added.
Hagino collected his seventh medal of the Games by finishing third.
Japanese swim officials said that the 20-year-old sensation was not scheduled to race on the final day today.
With four golds, Hagino fell short of matching Yoshimi Nishigawa’s haul of five swimming titles at the 1970 and 1974 Asian Games.
China’s Shi Yang took gold in the men’s 50m butterfly in 23.46 seconds, ahead of Singapore’s Joseph Schooling, who took silver to complete a full set of medals.
There was a surprise gold for Japan’s Satomi Suzuki in the women’s 50m breaststroke, while the Japanese also won the women’s 4x100m medley relay.
China’s quartet was disqualified in the morning heats.
China have dominated the Asian Games swimming in recent years, winning 24 of the 38 golds at Guangzhou.
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