199 Gold Medals at 16th Asian Games:

China underlines its sports superpower

Dinesh WEERAWANSA reporting from China

ASIAD: Guangzhou, Nov. 27 - China underlined its supremacy as a world sporting superpower with its richest haul of gold medals at the 16th Asian Games concluded here today.

China felt just a solitary medal short of magical 200-gold mark in the final medals standings. Nevertheless, it was yet another great achievement in the annals of China’s sports history as well as in the Asian Games, which was first held way back in 1951 in New Delhi.

The last gold for the hosts at the 45-nation Games was won by Chunxiu Zhou, who clocked a season’s best two hours and 25 minutes to win the women’s marathon worked off this morning at the Triathlon Venue.

Chinese badminton star Lin Dan was voted the most outstanding sportsman of the Asian Games by a special voting amongst the media personalities who covered the Games. Dian was presented the Samsung Most Valuable Player (MVP) award, widely regarded as the supreme honour for the sportsmen and women at Asian Games, recognised by the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) and the Guangzhou Asian Games Organising Committee (GAGOC).

The Guangzhou Asian Games MVP was selected by world media through voting.

From November 22 to 25, over 2,000 accredited media staff, including yours truly, cast votes at the Main Press Centre of the Guangzhou Asian Games Town. Five athletes with the most votes were the short-listed candidates, including Chinese badminton player Lin Dan, hurdler Liu Xiang and swimmer Sun Yang and Tang Yi as well as South Korean swimmer Park Taehwan. Dan polled the highest number of votes to take the top award. The result has been confirmed by a selection committee comprising representatives of the OCA, GAGOC, media, retired athletes and Samsung.

Dan - eye-catching award

At the award ceremony held on Friday, Deputy Secretary General of the Chinese Olympic Committee Liu Baoli received the award - the MVP Trophy, a Samsung 3D LED television and USD 50,000), on behalf of Dan, who is under close-door training for the forthcoming China Open.

Chairman of the OCA Media Committee, Manuel Silverio said they are delighted to award the trophy to Dan, taking his excellent performance into consideration during the Asian Games. “He is tenacious, strong-minded and determined to pursue sportsmanship and has presented perfect performance as an athlete,” he said.

Dan won two gold medals at the Guangzhou Asian Games. The victory marks his achievement of a badminton Grand Slam with glories from all the top world competitions, including the Olympic Games, World Championships, World Cup, Surdiman Cup, Thomas Cup and Asian Games.

Accounting for 16 titles on the penultimate day of the Games, China broke a 20-year-old gold medals record of the quadrennial event. Feng Lanlan’s Karate title at the Women’s 68kg pushed the hosts’ total golds to 184, and veteran centre Wang Zhizhi’s heroic farewell show in the title defending final put a perfect end for China. Stretching their gold haul to 197 on the 14th competition day, these Games’ penultimate and most productive day, China re-emphasised their dominance with the women’s marathon gold this morning.

China’s previous best performace at the Asian Games was 183 gold medals at the Beijing Asian Games in 1990, an unmatchable mark in the Games’ history since 1951. China surpassed the previous record of 342 total medals that the hosts registered in Beijing 20 years ago as they ended up with a record 416 medals - 199 gold, 119 silver and 98 bronze medals. South Korea finished second with 76 gold, 65 silver and 91 bronze medals, followed by Japan with 48 gold, 74 silver and 94 bronze medals.

Iran too made a significant progress to finish fourth with 20 gold medals, 14 silver and 25 bronze, followed by fifth-placed Kazakhstan. From South Asia’s point of view, India lived up to expectations by winning 13 gold medals, which included the last medal in women’s 4 x 400m relay at the Aoti Stadium last night.

Sri Lanka - worst performance

In contrast, Sri Lanka had its worst ever performance. Despite fielding a 143-member contingent, Sri Lanka could not secure a single medal.

That last time Sri Lanka went medal less was some 28 years, when their contingent for the 1982 Asian Games in New Delhi returned home empty handed. Similarly, Sri Lanka could not win at least a single bronze at the Guangzhou Games.

Their closest effort was its cricket team’s six-wicket loss at the hands of Pakistan in the third place play-off match in the Twenty20 cricket competition.

Besides China’s gold-snatching actions, Bangladesh also celebrated a historical win as their cricket team snuck past Afghanistan by five wickets for their first title in seven editions if Asian Games. “We are celebrating, but I hope Afghanistan will celebrate too because they deserve the silver medal,” Bangladesh coach Imran Sarwar said.

In a Asiad basketball final confirmed the last for the former NBA player, Wang blocked a shot and scored on an offensive rebound in the waning time to help China defend their title 77-71 over Korea.

Staying on the top podium, Wang was surprised when his 11 teammates took off their golds and put them all up Wang’s neck before showing respect down at the floor and bowing to the 33-year-old. “As a veteran to win this championship makes me very happy,” said an elated Wang.

“Over the last year we have faced a lot of pressure and people said we were suffering and with no bright future, but we have worked hard and this is the result of our hard work,” he added.

China’s young divers, but the updating squad beat back all doubts with a clean sweep of all 10 Asiad golds on Friday, continuing the country’s winning-all streak in 36 years. World No. 1 one He Zi capped a hugely successful season by winning her first Asiad title in the Women’s 3m Springboard, and rising star Cao Yuan upstaged better-known teammate Huo Liang in the Men’s 10m Platform Beijing Olympic gold-winning pitcher Yukiko Ueno threw a one-hitter to help Japan beat China 2-0 for its third straight softball title, but the hosts’ women defeated Japan in the Handball decider. Another clean sweep happened in Weiqi. Korea added duo team win to the mixed doubles victory as both their men and women masters denied China’s chances. In chess, the hosts went one short from all wrap after taking both team golds.

Chinese boxers on top

Chinese Boxing concluded on top of the medal tally for the first time with three more golds on Friday through defending champion Zou Shiming, Women’s boxers Dong Cheng and Li Jinzi.

The last gold medal of the Guangzhou Asian Games was won by South Korean Youngjun Ji who clocked two hours, 11 minutes and 11.00 seconds to win the men’s marathon in style. South Korea has been dominating in the men’s marathon series at the Asian Games and Ji became the latest member of that Korean family of champion long distance runners.

South Korea, which is getting ready to host the 17th edition of the Asian Games in four years time, proved their early preparations are on target by securing the second place in the final medals standings, pushing the other sporting giant in the continent Japan to the third place. South Korea won their final gold medal of the Games on Saturday when their men’s handball team emerged champions, beating Iran 32-28 in the final.

Korea won the gold medal in Men’s Handball, beating Iran 32-28 in the final while Kazakhstan won the bronze medal in women’s volleyball, beating North Korea three-nil. Japan won the gold medal in men’s volleyball when they beat Iran by three sets to one.