Athletics: China Pockets 3 of 8 Golds at Stake to Reaffirm Leading Role

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, October 14, 2002

Athletics: China Pockets 3 of 8 Golds at Stake to Reaffirm Leading Role

China, an athletic powerhouse in Asia, reaffirm its leading role in track and field at the Busan Asian Games by collecting three of the eight golds up for grab on Sunday.

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China, an athletic powerhouse in Asia, reaffirm its leading role in track and field at the Busan Asian Games by collecting three of the eight golds up for grab on Sunday.

China ranked first on the gold tally with 14 titles, followed by India and Saudi Arabia, both with seven. Japan, another athletics powerhouse in Asia, was quite lackluster with only two golds.

The first gold for China today came from the women's 4x100m relay race in which Chinese girls defended their Asiad title in 43.84 seconds. China set the Asiad record of 43.36 seconds in the event at the 1998 Bangkok Asiad.

Zeng Xiujun, the first runner, said after the race, "I had a very good start, which encouraged my teammates to run even faster."

Huang Mei, the third runner, said, "After a brilliant start by Zeng, other runners also kept calm and gave their full play in the race."

The second gold for China was garnered by Wu Tao in the men's discus throw in which he hurled the discus to 60.76 meters in his fifth attempt, beating the silver medalist Sammi Abbas from Iran by only 0.32 meters. Abbas achieved his best result today in his sixth and the final attempt.

Wu, 19, with season's best of 61.21 meters, said, "It was the first time for me to participate in Asian Games. I feel really great to take the title. My opponents were very tough. I played all out in the competition."

Feng Shuyong, a Chinese team official, told Xinhua, "We were not sure if Wu could win. We just asked him to give his full play.And he did very well."

The third gold for China emerged from the women's triple jump in which Huang Qiuyan jumped 14.28 meters, breaking the Asiad record of 14.27 meters set by her compatriot Ren Ruiping in Bangkok. Huang's teammate Zhang Hao jumped 13.89 meters to grip the silver.

"Huang is the ace Asian athlete in the event. She did quite well today and deserved the win." Feng Shuyong said.

Besides China, Ham Pong Sil from the Democratic people's Republic of Korea shone in the Busan athletics arena on Sunday, taking the gold of the 42.195-kilometer marathon race, the only athletics gold for her motherland.

The DPR Korea top female marathoner, 28, finished the race in two hours, 33 minutes and 34 seconds.

"I felt exhausted when I covered about 37 kilometers, but strength came back to me again as I realised that leader Kim Jong Il might be watching me," Ham said.

Ham wrapped around her left wrist with a white cloth, on which the word "bravery" was written in Korean with blood.

She told reporters that "the cloth was given by the people of my country" and it also gave her strength during the race.

The other four golds were distributed to India in women's 4x400m relay race, Thailand in men's 4x100m relay race, Kyrgyzstanin women's high jump and Saudi Arabia in men's 4x400m relay race.

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