DOHA – The Chinese not only took home the most gold medals for a seventh successive Asian Games from Doha, they took the flag and torch of the continental gathering too.
With the next Summer Olympics in Beijing in 2008 and the 16th Asian Games taking place in the southern city of Guangzhou in 2010, the next four-year cycle in Asian sport will have a distinctly Chinese flavour. Their athletes, however, do not seem to need the advantage of performing on home soil after winning 165 of the 428 gold medals in Doha, 15 more than in Pusan in 2002.Two thirds of the delegation had never competed at a major Games and still China swept the diving pool, won six of seven golds in table tennis, 27 of 44 in shooting, 11 in gymnastics as well as making inroads into new sports with a bronze in rugby sevens.The Beijing Olympic are just 20 months away, however, and there will be no complacency.The Japanese were satisfied with finishing third behind South Korea with their haul of 50 golds and 198 medals, although head coach Noriyuki Ichihara thought his male athletes needed more focus.Double Olympic champion Kosuke Kitajima grabbed three titles as Japan won 16 golds in the pool but the top swimmer was South Korea’s Park Tae-Hwan.The 17-year-old set new Asian marks to win gold in the men’s 200m and 1500m freestyle and grabbed another in the 400m freestyle as well as a silver and three bronzes.Only one Asian record was set in a disappointing athletics programme, when Zhang Wenxiu surpassed her own mark in the women’s hammer.China’s Olympic 110m hurdles champion Liu Xiang turned up and cantered to gold in 13.15 seconds, well outside the world record 12.88 he ran this year.African imports ruled the track for Bahrain and Qatar while Saudi Arabia’s John Smith-trained athletics team grabbed five golds to prove it was possible to develop home-grown talent in the Gulf.While China’s dominance of the medals table was no surprise, the 50cm or so of rain that fell on the desert Emirate over the period of the Games was.The poor weather could not have helped attendances at the events, which were disappointing for a country which had lavished $2.8 billion on the Games and has ambitions to host the 2016 Olympics.Doha also witnessed the first death of an athlete in competition in the 55-year history of Games when South Korea’s Kim Hyung-chil died after being crushed by his horse in a heavy fall in an equestrian event.Nampa-ReutersTheir athletes, however, do not seem to need the advantage of performing on home soil after winning 165 of the 428 gold medals in Doha, 15 more than in Pusan in 2002.Two thirds of the delegation had never competed at a major Games and still China swept the diving pool, won six of seven golds in table tennis, 27 of 44 in shooting, 11 in gymnastics as well as making inroads into new sports with a bronze in rugby sevens.The Beijing Olympic are just 20 months away, however, and there will be no complacency.The Japanese were satisfied with finishing third behind South Korea with their haul of 50 golds and 198 medals, although head coach Noriyuki Ichihara thought his male athletes needed more focus.Double Olympic champion Kosuke Kitajima grabbed three titles as Japan won 16 golds in the pool but the top swimmer was South Korea’s Park Tae-Hwan.The 17-year-old set new Asian marks to win gold in the men’s 200m and 1500m freestyle and grabbed another in the 400m freestyle as well as a silver and three bronzes.Only one Asian record was set in a disappointing athletics programme, when Zhang Wenxiu surpassed her own mark in the women’s hammer.China’s Olympic 110m hurdles champion Liu Xiang turned up and cantered to gold in 13.15 seconds, well outside the world record 12.88 he ran this year.African imports ruled the track for Bahrain and Qatar while Saudi Arabia’s John Smith-trained athletics team grabbed five golds to prove it was possible to develop home-grown talent in the Gulf.While China’s dominance of the medals table was no surprise, the 50cm or so of rain that fell on the desert Emirate over the period of the Games was.The poor weather could not have helped attendances at the events, which were disappointing for a country which had lavished $2.8 billion on the Games and has ambitions to host the 2016 Olympics.Doha also witnessed the first death of an athlete in competition in the 55-year history of Games when South Korea’s Kim Hyung-chil died after being crushed by his horse in a heavy fall in an equestrian event.Nampa-Reuters
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