North Korean weightlifter sets new world record:

Asian Games T20 cricket begins

Dinesh Weerawansa reporting from South Korea

INCHEON, Sep. 20 - Unseeded China and Thailand won their respective qualifying round matches of the Asian Games women’s T20 cricket tournament which began at the Yeonhui cricket grounds here today. But the most notable moment of the day came in weightlifting - when North Korean Om Yun-chol won his country’s first gold medal with a new world record.

China beat hosts South Korea by eight wickets in the curtain raiser match. Batting first, the hosts were bowled out for 49 runs in 13.2 overs. China in reply made 50 for 2 in 15 overs to win their group ‘C’ match.

In the second match of the day played this afternoon, Thailand beat Malaysia by nine wickets. Taking the first lease of the wicket, Malaysia could only muster 49 for 8 in 20 overs. Thailand made it easy when they scored 50 for one in 11.4 overs with opener Nattaya Boochatham making unbeaten 28.

In the two qualifying round games scheduled for Sunday in the women’s T20 cricket tournament, China will meet Hong Kong in the morning session while Thailand takes on Nepal in the other match to be played in the afternoon session.

Defending champions Pakistan, along with Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Japan – the top four teams at the last 2010 Guangzhou Games tournament, have been drawn a bye to play from the quarter final stage. The other four quarter finalists would be known after the ongoing qualifying round matches.

Despite fielding its women’s team as defending champions, Pakistan will not send its men’s team for the T20 tournament which starts later this week with ten teams clashing for honours. In fact, Sri Lanka and the defending champions Bangladesh are the only two Test nations to field teams for the Asian Games men’s T20 tournament.

India, which also skipped the inaugural competition four years ago in China, chose to stay away once again as the Indian Cricket Board has shown reluctance to field teams for multi-discipline Games. Pakistan will not field its men’s team which is preparing for the series against Australia starting in the United Arab Emirates next month.

Bangladesh, which won their first ever Asian Games gold medal though men’s T20 cricket in Guangzhou 2010, will be at full-strength. Bangladesh skipper Mushfiqur Rahim, whose wedding overlaps with the Games, is the only experienced player missing from the lineup to Incheon. All-rounder Shakib Al Hasan, who served out a disciplinary ban and medium paceman Rubel Hossain returns to the side at the expense of Sohag Gazi and Al-Amin Hossain, who were reported for suspect bowling actions recently.

Sri Lanka team will be led by Lahiru Thirimanne, who played in the national team that won the World Twenty20 title in Bangladesh in April.

Hong Kong will consider themselves medal aspirants following their shock win over hosts Bangladesh at the World Twenty20 and prepared themselves by touring Sri Lanka. Hosts South Korea make their cricket debut after hiring Bangladesh's former English coach Julien Fountain to teach their baseball players with the willow.

Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Hong Kong have been given a bye into the quarter-finals. They will be joined by four minnows picked after the league phase which begins on September 27.

Beach volleyball

Sri Lanka is down to play in two men’s beach volleyball matches on Sunday (21) at Songdo Global University Beach Volleyball Venue. Sri Lanka’s M.L.P. Asanka and Pubudu Kumara Ekanayake will take on Indonesia’s Dian Putra Santosa and F. Fahriansyah in their pool ‘C’match.

Sri Lankan duo of Jude Mahesh Perera and Wasantha Ratnapala will take on Cambodia’s Khlork Sim and Samart Lim in their pool ‘B’ preliminary round match schedule for the afternoon session.

Om Yun-chol’s world record feat

North Korean weightlifter Om Yun-chol claimed his country's first gold medal at the 2014 Asian Games here on Saturday in a record-breaking fashion. Om broke his own world record with a lift of 170? in the clean and jerk. He also hoisted 128? in the snatch earlier for an Asian Games record total of 298? at the Moonlight Festival Garden Weightlifting Venue in the western port city.

Twenty two-year-old Om had lifted 169? during the Asian Senior Interclub Weightlifting Championship held in Pyongyang last year. This is the first career Asiad gold for Om, but the results were very much anticipated by many for the 2012 Olympic gold medalist and the 2013 world champ.

Thach Kim Tuan from Vietnam came up short after lifting 294? in total and won the silver, but was able to set a record for the Asian Games by snatching 134?, which is also the highest score among all Asian athletes within his division. China's Wu Jingbiao ended in third place by lifting a total of 288?.

A crowd of South Korean fans sat in the bleachers and cheered for the North Korean athlete, holding together a sign that read “Om Yun-chol is the best” in Korean, while shouting out his name and the phrase “We are one,” to their northern neighbor.

More than 10 officials from the North Korean delegation were also seen in the stands wearing matching sweatsuits of red and white, waving the communist country's national flag to cheer for their team member.

South Korea, China five golds each

Asian sports giants China and South Korea bagged five gold medals each on the opening day’s competition of the 45-nation Games begun here last night with a spectacular opening ceremony.

But the hosts fared slightly better to finish on top of the medals standings after the first day’s event, winning five silver medals to China’s one silver. Mongolia and Kazakhstan won two golds each while Japan won a solitary gold on day one. India, North Korea and Malaysia also won a gold medal each.

After China’s dominance in the shooting range this morning, South Korea increased its gold haul with two gold medals in fencing. The hosts snapped up two fencing gold medals, getting off to a quick start in a sport it's expected to dominate in the coming days at the continental competition.

There were two all-Korean finals on the day at Goyang Gymnasium in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, north of the host city. First, Lee Ra-jin stunned Kim Ji-yeon, the 2012 Olympic champ, in the women's sabre final by the score of 15-11. Jung Jin-sun followed suit, beating Park Kyoung-doo in the men's epee final, 15-9.

In the women's event, Lee jumped out to a 5-1 lead over the flustered Kim, who'd also won this year's Asian championships gold medal two months ago. Kim made a comeback and caught up to 13-10. Kim, who had a more taxing path to the final, ran out of gas toward the end, as Lee picked up her first career Asiad gold.

It was the first all-Korean showdown for an Asiad gold in the women's sabre since 2002.

First cycling gold

South Korea struck its first cycling gold in the men's team sprint, completing its two-medal day on the track. The trio of Kang Dong-jin, Yim Chae-bin and Son Je-yong clocked in at 59.616 seconds after racing three laps of the 333.3m 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.

It is the first time for South Korea to clinch the gold medal in the men's cycling team sprint at an Asiad. Previously, the silver at the 2002 Busan Asian Games had been the country's best performance in the discipline. The team defeated its Chinese rival by a margin of only 0.344 seconds. China was defending its Asian Games title after winning in Guangzhou in 2010 with different riders.