Pakistan crush Sri Lanka 14-0 in men’s hockey qualifier:

China wins three shooting golds to take early lead

Dinesh Weerawansa reporting from South Korea

INCHEON, Sep. 20 – Asian sports heavyweights China bagged three gold medals in shooting while Sri Lanka suffered a humiliating defeat in their men’s hockey tournament opening game against Pakistan on the opening day of the 17th Asian Games competition proper today.

China, which finished on top of the final medals table at the last Guangzhou 2010 Games with a record 199 gold medals, got into business from day one, dominating in the shooting range, sweeping up three of the four gold medals up for grabs in pistol events while host South Korea struggled to keep up.

But Sri Lanka, fielding a contingent of 111 members competing in nine disciplines, made an inauspicious start with a humiliating defeat today. Pakistan crushed Sri Lanka by 14 goals to nil in their Awsian Games men’s hockey tournament pool ‘B’ qualifying round match played at Seonhak Hockey Stadium here today. Pakistan completely dominated the game with two impressive

first two quarters to total nine goals. The winners scored 4, 5, 3 and 2 goals in respective quarters.

Sri Lanka, led by Thusith Darshana Rathnasiri, will have another tough hurdle on Sunday (21) when they take on superior India side at the same venue. Sri Lanka team’s other pool ‘B’ qualifying matches will be against China (on Sep. 23) and Oman (Sep. 25)

In the other matches of the tournament played on the opening day, Japan beat Bangladesh by eight goals to nil and Malaysia beat Singapore by eight goals to two.

The Chinese female pistol shooters accounted for the first gold medal of the 2014 Games. The trio of Guo Wenjun, Zhang Mengyuan and Zhou Qingyuan combined for 1,146 points to win the women’s 10air pistol team event at Ongnyeon International Shooting Range in Incheon. The total scores of three shooters for each country in the individual qualification round determined the medal winners in the team component.

Chinese Taipei took the silver with 1,141 points. Mongolia and South Korea were tied at 1,140 points but the Mongolians shot more inner 10s than the South Koreans, 35-29, to take the bronze. Zhang later captured her second gold medal in the individual event. She shot 202.2 points to beat Jung Jee-hae of South Korea by 0.9 point, becoming the first double gold medalist of this year’s Asiad.

South Korea had won both the team and the individual gold in the women’s 10air pistol at the last Asiad in Guangzhou, China. China earned another team gold, this time in the men’s 50pistol. The team of Pang Wei, Pu Qifeng and Wang Zhiwei together shot 1,692 points, 22 points better than the silver medalist, South Korea.

Only Jitu Rai’s gold medal for India in the individual event later Saturday prevented a complete Chinese sweep of pistol shooting medals on Saturday.

All three Chinese shooters qualified for the final and Wang took the bronze..

In contrast to their rivals’ dominance, the South Koreans were off target on Saturday and walked away with just two silver medals. Jung Jee-hae grabbed silver in the women’s 10 air pistol event, after she and her two teammates came in fourth in the team competition. The men’s 50pistol trio of Jin Jong-oh, Lee Dae-myung and Choi Young-rae also got the team silver

medal. Jin, the only one of the three to qualify for the individual final, finished a disappointing seventh.

Hosts South Korea secured its first gold medal at the Incheon Asian Games when Lee Ha-sung came won the men’s changquan event in wushu. Competing in the final at Ganghwa Dolmens Gymnasium in this western port city, Lee scored 9.71 points for the host’s first gold medal. Jia Rui of Macau was the silver medalist with 9.69 points. Daisuke Ichikizaki of Japan got the

bronze with 9.67 points. Lee earned 5.00 points in quality of management, 2.71 points in overall performance and 2.00 in degree of difficulty.

Today’s triumph was South Korea’s first wushu gold in Asian Games since Yang Seong-chan clinched the gold in the men’s taijiquan competition at the Busan Asians Game in 2002. A total of 11 wushu competitors excited the crowd with a series of impressive martial arts movements.

In the men’s beach volleyball tournament qualifying round matches played today, Kazakhstan beat Maldives 2-0, Hong Kong beat South Korea 2-0, Thailand beat Kuwait 2-0, Indonesia beat Afghanistan 2-0 and Kazakhstan beat Oman 2-0.

South Korea struck its first cycling gold in the men’s team sprint with the home trio of Kang Dong-jin, Yim Chae-bin and Son Je-yong clocking 59.616 seconds after racing three laps of the 333.3 velodrome at the Incheon International Velodrome in the northern part of this port city, edging China’s Xu Chao, Hu Ke, and Bao Saifei, who finished in 59.960 seconds.

Host South Korea picked up the silver medal in the women’s cycling team sprint with Kim Won-gyeong and Lee Hye-jing finishing their two-lap race in 44.876 seconds, behind the Chinese champions of Gong Jinjie and Zhong Tianshi, who finished in 43.774 seconds. The Chinese Taipei team of Hsiao Mei Yu and Huang Ting Ying clinched the bronze medal after clocking 45.389 seconds.

South Korea claimed a much-anticipated gold in the team dressage equestrian event at the Asian Games on Saturday, extending its winning streak at the multinational event to five. Hwang Young-shik, Chung Yoo-yeon and Kim Dong-seon of South Korea combined for an average of 71.746 points in Incheon, ahead of second-place Japan with 69.842 points on average.

Hwang, 23, was the best rider among all 32 with 74.342 points. The gold was

his third consecutive title at the Asian Games following two gold medals at Guangzhou 2010.

Kim Dong-seon ranked third overall with 71.237 points. Raised under a South Korean business magnate, the 25-year-old had previously won golds in the team dressage event at the 2006 and 2010 Asian Games. Chung had the third-best score for South Korea at 69.658 points. South Korea has swept all the gold medals up for grabs in the discipline in the past four Asian Games. It has collected 11 golds since the inaugural Games in 1951, trailing only Japan.

Meanwhile, South Korea’s swimming star Park Tae-hwan will look to take his third straight Asiad gold medal in his bread-and-butter event on home soil on Sunday, the second day of competition. He will first race at a brand new arena named after him in the 200-meter freestyle, which gave him two gold medals at the previous Asian Games in 2006 and 2010. He claimed two silver medals at the 2012 London Olympics in the event.

Park will compete with arch-rival Sun Yang of China, who is hoping to scupper Park’s bid and grab the first gold in men’s swimming at the Asian Games held in the port city of Incheon.

South Korean fencers and shooters are also set to join the gold medal rush on the same day. Female fencer Nam Hyun-hee is seeking her third title at the women’s individual foil here in Incheon, while Gu Bon-gil is also gunning for his second Asiad gold in the men’s sabre. The fencing squad is eyeing at least seven golds on home soil.

Reigning world champion Jin Jong-oh and his teammate Lee Dae-myung will shoot for gold in the men’s team and individual 10 air pistol events.

Artistic gymnastics gets underway with Yang Hak-seon taking part in the men’s individual and the final for the men’s team events. Nicknamed “God of Vault,” Yang won gold in the men’s vault four years ago and became the first South Korean gymnast to claim Olympic gold in the apparatus at the 2012 Olympics. On the cycle track, the men’s team pursuit will be chasing a gold medal, too. Twenty-four gold medals are up for grabs on Sunday (21).