A rampant Nepal yesterday rewrote the T20 international cricket record books at the Asian Games, while China’s Zhang Yufei laid down another marker for the Paris Olympics in the swimming pool.
Hosts China were leading the medals table with 74 golds as of press time last night, far ahead of South Korea (18) and Japan (14), after adding titles in artistic gymnastics, chess, sailing, shooting, wushu and beach volleyball.
Taiwan has two golds, three silvers and three bronzes.
Photo: AFP
In some of the first action on day four in Hangzhou, Nepal smashed a series of records to open the men’s cricket competition in a 273-run thumping of bewildered part-timers Mongolia.
Nepal bludgeoned 314-3 in their 20 overs, beating the previous highest T20 men’s international innings of 278-3 by Afghanistan against Ireland in 2019.
Teenager Kushal Malla, batting at No. 3, spearheaded the onslaught by crashing the fastest T20 international century off 34 balls.
Photo: AFP
Among the other records they racked up, Dipendra Singh Airee hit a scarcely believable eight sixes in an unbeaten 52 off 10 balls.
Nepal’s 26 sixes in the innings was also the best ever.
In another gold rush for hosts China, they won the women’s and men’s street finals in skateboarding thanks to a couple of teenagers.
Sixteen-year-old Zhang Jie triumphed in the men’s, while Cui Chenxi became China’s youngest Asian Games gold medalist in takin the women’s title.
However, China did not have it all their own way as Japan won all three golds on offer on the day on the cycling track ahead of the hosts.
Japan sped to victory in the women’s and men’s team pursuit, and in women’s keirin.
Japan’s Naoki Kojima said he and his teammates were celebrating well before they crossed the line in the men’s team pursuit.
“In the last three or four laps we knew that we’d win,” he said.
“I was behind my teammates and I was supposed to lead the last lap,” he said. “I checked the other riders, and I knew we had enough power to win. We were actually already celebrating during the last three or four laps.”
In swimming, world champion Zhang clocked the world’s fastest time this year to win the 100m butterfly title, adding to her 200m gold medal.
The Chinese star surged to the wall in 55.86 seconds.
Meanwhile, Japan’s Reona Aoki edged veteran teammate Satomi Suzuki to clinch the 100m breaststroke gold in 1:06.81.
Additional reporting by staff writer, with Reuters
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