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Asian Games roundup Canoeing adds to Chinese gold medal haulPosted: Thursday October 10, 2002 6:04 AMBUSAN, South Korea (AP) -- China added canoeing to its ways of winning Asian Games gold medals on water. Sri Lankan runner Susantika Jayasinghe added a missed chance for a sprint sweep to her list of troubles. Jayasinghe, often Asia's fastest but never an Asian Games gold medalist before she won the 100 Tuesday, dropped out of the 200 Thursday with a hamstring injury. While she missed a chance for the 100-200 sprint double she wanted, India accomplished a triple in track and field. Saraswati Saha -- who said she had come to beat Jayasinghe -- won the 200 by 0.06 seconds as China's Ni Xiaoli nearly caught her at the tape. Sunita Rani won the women's 1,500 and Neelam Jaswant Singh won the women's discus throw. India also advanced to gold medal matches in men's field hockey and men's tennis doubles. The hockey team beat archrival Pakistan 4-3 and will play in Saturday's final against South Korea, a 3-0 winner over Malaysia. The former No. 1 tennis pair of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi play their final Friday. On the track, Saudi Arabia's Makhld Al-Otaibi scored a distance double, adding gold in the men's 5,000 to his victory Monday in the 10,000. Saudi Arabia now has five golds, all in athletics. Japan's Shingo Suetsugu won the men's 200, comfortably ahead of Kazakstan's Gennadiy Chernovol. Feng Yun led a 1-2 Chinese finish in the women's 100-meter hurdles, and Qi Haifeng won the two-day, 10-event decathlon. While China was overshadowed in the athletics stadium, its canoe racers collected four gold medals, helping to lift the nation's total to 126. South Korea had 65. Lee Jin-taek won the men's high jump, and the Koreans also gained golds from their men's and women's archery teams, equestrian rider Choi Jun-sang in dressage, and a downhill cyclist. Japan trailed with 39, including Suetsugu's and one from women's downhill cycling. Even without Jayasinghe, Sri Lanka took gold Thursday. Damayanthi Kobala Vithanage won the women's 400, beating 800 winner K.M. Beenamol by nearly a second. Jayasinghe's coach, Dervin Perera, said she hurt her leg in heats Wednesday but might be able to run in the relay races on Saturday. "She wanted to run (the 200) but decided it would be better not to take any chances," he added. Jayasinghe has an Olympic bronze from the 200 meters in 2000 and a silver from the 1997 world championships, in addition to Asian championships golds. Her record also includes being exonerated after two positive drug tests, accusations of amorous advances by Sri Lankan officials and frequent battles with her nation's sports leaders. Jayasinghe, who started out training barefoot in rubber plantations, withdrew from competition at the last Asian Games in 1998, also citing a hamstring injury. Her critics said she was faking to avoid Chinese rival Li Xuemei, who won the 100. "All I ever wanted was to win races and bring glory to my country, but things didn't always go right," she said last week. Thursday's 200 winner, Saha, said of Jayasinghe: "I came here to beat her and felt confident that I could." In downhill cycling, Japan's Mio Suemasa finished more than 24 seconds ahead of compatriot Mami Masuda in the women's race, and South Korea's Chung Hyung-rae edged Japan's Takashi Tsukamoto by less than half a second in the men's. Thailand, with the top-seeded players in both men's and women's singles, moved closer to two gold medals in tennis. Paradorn Srichaphan reached the men's semifinals by beating China's Lu Yenhsun 6-0, 6-4, and Tamarine Tanasugarn advanced to the women's final by defeating Japan's Shinobu Asagoe 6-3, 6-2. Iran's Hossein Reza Zadeh won in the heaviest men's class -- over 105 kilograms -- as weightlifting concluded. China won in nine of the 15 men's and women's weight classes; world records were broken or tied in eight of the 15. In five canoeing races, Kazakstan's Dmitry Torlopov and Dmitry Kaltenberger prevented a Chinese sweep by winning in the men's double kayaks. Kazakstan also was leading in the four-man kayak race, but China made up nearly a second over the last 250 meters and won by 0.054 second. Earlier in the games, China won 12 of 13 rowing races and six of 15 in sailing.
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