Chinese women biathletes became invincible and their men
compatriots also caught up while Japan regained their second
overall place in the
sixth Asian Winter Games on Friday.
With the last eight golds to be on offer on Saturday, China
stood atop with 17 golds, 15 silvers and 19 bronzes, Japan overtook
South Korea to a distant second on 10-7-11 against 9-12-10.
Kazakhstan were in fourth on 3-5-6 and Mongolia remained as the
only other country on the tally with one bronze.
The Chinese men completed a perfect show time by winning their
4x7.5km relay, the fifth for China of the seven biathlon gold
medals on offer at the Beidahu ski resort in Jilin, after their
women athletes claimed the 4x6km relay for a clean sweep of all
four golds for women at the Games.
Veteran Liu Xianying, 30, became the sole athlete of the Games
with three golds to her name after taking 7.5km sprint, 15km
individual and relay. And Chinese ace Kong Yingchao also claimed
the 10km pursuit title.
"Chinese women have been listed among the top athletes in the
world, they are likely to be the world number one tomorrow, but the
men biathletes still have a long way to go," said former
International Biathlon Union (IBU) vice-chairman Ubaldo Prucker on
Friday.
The other two biathlon golds were split by Kazakhstan and Japan,
with men's 20km individual title going to Kazakhstan on Thursday
and Japan winning the men's 10km sprint on Monday.
"The Chinese biathletes are improving fast, and they really
impressed us with their World Cup results ahead of the Asian
jamboree," said Yelena Khrustaleva, the last skier for the
Kazakhstan relay team.
However, Khrustaleva signaled a warning that "we have imported
some excellent athletes from our cross-country team, and let's see
what will happen in the next few years."
The 7th Asian Winter Games will be held at Almaty, Kazakhstan,
and the central Asian country is also in a bid to host the 2014
Winter Olympics.
Also in Jilin, Japan was on the way to monopoly the Alpine
skiing by reaping their third straight gold medal through Chika
Kato who won the women's slalom on Friday.
Kato notched a combined time of one minute and 24.83 seconds for
the victory, beating teammate Moe Hanaoka to the second place in 1:
25.78. Earlier, both the men's and women's giant slalom titles also
became the collection of the Japanese skiers on Wednesday and
Thursday.
Oh Jae-Eun of South Korea settled for the bronze with 1:27.77
ahead of Chinese Miao Liyan, who came in fourth with 1:28.31.
"I could have done better," said Miao, who also placed fourth in
the giant slalom. "But I was not good enough in the second run. I
thought I could overtake Oh in the second run, but that thought
distracted me."
In the women's single figure skating, Japanese Yukari Nakano
scored the best of 105.02 while compatriot Fumie Suguri committed
errors in her presentation for the third-best of 103.55 in the free
skating.
Thus, Nakano stood atop the podium with a total of 162.38
points, Suguri got the silver in 162.05 and Chinese Xu Shubin had
the bronze in 159.02.
(Xinhua News Agency February 3, 2007)
