Roundup: S. Korea Dwarfs China for the Day, 3 World Records Fall

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, October 08, 2002

Roundup: S. Korea Dwarfs China for the Day, 3 World Records Fall

South Korea outscored China 15-5 for Monday's gold medal race in the Asian Games thanks to its all-mighty soft tennis team as three more weightlifting world records bit the dust.

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South Korea outscored China 15-5 for Monday's gold medal race in the Asian Games thanks to its all-mighty soft tennis team as three more weightlifting world records bit the dust.

The host country added five to two team golds won earlier in soft tennis, won two each in cycling, wrestling and shooting, one each in athletics, billiards, bowling and weightlifting, making it15 for the day and 47 for the total.

China's total is 97. It collected two from shooting, one each from weightlifting, athletics and cycling, with the most stunning performance coming from Sun Ruiping, who chalked up three new world records in the women's 75kg division weightlifting.

After snatching a world record weight of 118.5kg, Sun continued her assault in the clean and jerk, lifting 145kg and 152.5kg in the second and third attempt. Both lifts broke the previous world mark of 143kg set by Gyongyi Likerecz of Hungary at the world junior championships in June.

Sun had a total of 270kg, bettering the listed world record by a massive 12.5kg. It was the 10th world mark for the sport in this games.

Tatyana Khromova of Kazakhstan, who also broke the world snatch record with 118kg, had the silver at 257.5 and Kim Soon-hee of South Korea took the bronze at 242.5.

In the men's 85kg class weightlifting, Song Jong-shik of South Korea lifted the gold with a combined weight of 372.5kg.

The rivalry between China and Japan, the leading athletics powers in Asia, wasn't seen on the opening day of track and field as five countries split as many golds.

Less known Makhld Al Otaibi stole the show as he won the men's 10,000m run in a time of 28 minutes 41.89 seconds, the first medal for Saudi Arabia.

India's Anju Bobby George, in her international debut, surged 6.53 meters to win the women's long jump and South Korean Lee Young-sun grabbed the women's javelin with a throw of 58.87 meters.

Valery Borissov of Kazakhstan won the men's 20m walk in 1:24.20and Chinese Wang Qingqing took the women's event in 1.33.40.

China and Japan are set to resume their battle for athletics supremacy on Tuesday which has 10 golds up for grabs.

The two nations dominated the athletics tally in the 1998 Asiadwith China winning 15 golds and Japan picking 12.

Igor Pirekeev won Turkmenistan's first gold, scoring 1,266 points to defend his men's 50-meter rifle three positions final he won four years ago.

South Korea and China each shot down two golds with DPR Korea winning the other one.

In another heavy blow to the Chinese table tennis team, both of its men's doubles pairs were shut out of the final after losing to their South Korean opponents.

Taek Taek-soo/Oh Sang-eun crushed China's world champions Wang Liqin/Yan Sen 4-0, and Lee Chul-seung/Ryu Seung-min upset Kong Linghui/Ma Lin 4-1 in the surprising quick defeats for the powerful Chinese.

In the five table tennis events played so far, China, which bagged six out of seven titles in the 1998 Asian Games and swept all the golds in the 1996 and 2000 Olympics, had lost in the women's team final to DPR Korea and also been shut out of the mixed doubles final.

The all-star Chinese team only managed to clinch the men's team title and earned a place in the women's doubles final scheduled for Tuesday.

By beating the Chinese, the host players have secured their first table tennis gold at this Asiad.

With China leading with 97 and South Korea second with 46 in the race for gold, Japan is third in 31, Kazakhstan fourth in 10, and DPR Korea and Uzbekistan joint fifth with seven. Chinese Taipei and Thailand have five each.

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