Asia keeps pace in Afro-Asian Games

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, October 29, 2003

Asia keeps pace in Afro-Asian Games

Asia kept its pace by winning 10 gold medals on the fourth day of the Afro-Asian Games (AAG) despite the opening of athletics competition in which Africa was thought to be in dominant position.

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Asia kept its pace by winning 10 gold medals on the fourth day of the Afro-Asian Games (AAG) despite the opening of athletics competition in which Africa was thought to be in dominant position.

Athletes from Kazakhstan and China took half of Tuesday's 10 athletics titles while South Africa, Ethiopia and Kenya split the other five.

South Africa was the biggest winner of the day as its athletes took five gold medals from swimming and athletics to rank second in medal tally with eight golds, just behind China which had 14 toits credit.

China managed four gold medals on Tuesday, two from athletics, one from swimming and one from weightlifting.

After Tuesday's competitions, Asia led Africa 36-19 in medal table. China is the country which wins the most golds with 14, followed by South Africa at 8 and Japan at 7.

Huang Qiuyan took the women's triple jump title with a winning distance of 13.50 meters. Liu Yinghui won the women's hammer event at 68.03 meters.

Chen Hua won the women's 400m freestyle in a time of 4 minutes 25.90 seconds, some 22 seconds slower than the world record of 4:03.85 and 18 seconds modest of 2002 Busan Asian Games' winning time of 4:07.23.

But compared with men's 1,500m freestyle, Chen Hua's performance should be regarded as on top level. Charlton Lee Lawson of South Africa took the men's 1,500m freestyle title in a time of 16:43.83, more than two minutes shy of the world record of14:34.56.

The AAG organizers originally set the entry standard to top three finishers of Asian Games and All Africa Games or medalists of respective Asian and African championships, but lack of motivation from many Asian and African nations and regions and conflict of calendar had forced the organizers to open the day to low-profile athletes.

Africa failed to send its top three soccer teams to the AAG, while Cameroon's replacement Ghana also withdrew in the last minute.

The low competitive level will definitely cast shadows over thefuture of the games. The AAG Council, the newly set governing body of the Afro-Asian Games which headquartered in New Delhi, has decided that the second edition of the games will be held in Africa in 2007. But the Council has yet to find an African country to take the job.

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