The banning of a Malaysian martial arts gold medalist for a doping offense overshadowed rare victories for Saudi Arabia and Singapore at the Asian Games yesterday.
Tai Cheau Xuen was stripped of the gold she won in wushu and kicked out of the Games after testing positive for sibutramine, a banned stimulant often found in weight-loss pills.
The 22-year-old Tai became the third competitor in the past week to be expelled from the Asian Games for drugs, but the first medalist.
There was no immediate reaction from her or Malaysian team officials, but the Olympic Council of Asia released a statement confirming the positive test and the automatic sanctions.
Tai’s expulsion took the shine off a triumphant day for Saudi Arabia and Singapore, who each collected gold on another day when the Chinese sporting machine rumbled on.
Saudi Arabia — which was heavily criticized by human rights groups for excluding women from their team — claimed just their second gold in Incheon when Abdullah Waleed Al Sharbatly won the equestrian individual jumping event.
Al Sharbatly finished level with Japan’s Satoshi Hirao after both had successive clear rounds. In the jump-off, Al Sharbatly had another clear round and got the gold when Hirao dropped a bar and was penalized.
“It’s a great feeling to win a medal. There’s nothing better than winning the gold,” said Al Sharbtly, who won bronze in the team event at the 2012 London Olympics.
Singapore also picked up their second gold in Incheon with victory in the women’s bowling team of five event. Shayna Ng, who had six strikes in a row, joined Cherie Tan, Daphne Tan, New Hui Fen and Jazreel Tan for a total of 6,119 pins.
South Korea finished with silver in the team event, but won the individual title through Lee Na-young.
The host nation also won two golds in soft tennis, with Kim Hyeong-jun taking the men’s singles and Kim Bomi taking the women’s.
Later in the day, controversy struck again when an Iraqi weightlifter failed a dope test and was also kicked out of the Games.
Mohammed al-Aifuri, who was seventh in the men’s super-heavyweight 105kg-plus category this week, was the fourth test failure since the start of the 15-day Games.
The council said a test taken on Sept. 14, before the start of the Games, detected steroids banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency.
With 320 of 439 gold medals given out at the continental games, China stood atop the tally with 125, followed by host South Korea with 54, and Japan with 37.
In another victory for China, Wang Qiang won the country’s first-ever gold medal in Asian Games tennis.
Ranked 108th, Wang beat 96th-ranked Luksika Kumkhum of Thailand 6-3, 7-5, from 3-1 down in the second set of the women’s final. China also left the tennis competition with one silver and two bronzes.
“I felt under huge pressure after we lost the women’s team final. China won some medals in tennis, but we desperately needed a gold one,” Wang said.
China also won the women’s team table tennis title and both cross-country mountain bike races, Wang Zhen pedaling to victory in the men’s and Shi Qinglan in the women’s event.
As expected, China swept the synchronized diving, with Chen Ruolin and Liu Huixia in the women’s 10m platform synchronized event, and Cao Yuan and Lin Yue in the men’s 3m springboard synchro.
In athletics, Asian record-holder Li Ling of Japan won the women’s pole vault, and Olympic bronze medalist discus thrower Ehsan Hadadi of Iran won.
In field hockey, archrivals India and Pakistan set themselves up for a rousing final after recording hard-fought semi-final wins.
India, seeking their first Asiad title since 1998, played a spirited game to outlast the hosts 1-0, with Akashdeep Singh scoring the winner in the 44th from a tight angle.
Defending champions Pakistan were held to a 0-0 draw by 2010 finalists Malaysia before winning a thrilling penalty shootout 6-5. It needed eight attempts from each side to break the deadlock, with Rashid Mehmood beating Malaysian goalkeeper Kumar Subramaniam for the winner.
The final will be played tomorrow, with the winner securing a direct entry to the 2016 Rio Olympics.
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