Knowledge over youth
Experience is golden at the Asian Games
Posted: Tuesday December 15, 1998 09:12 PM
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Gold rush: Li Xuemei anchored China in the 4 x 100-meter relay AP |
BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) -- Experience counts. For sports power China, 39-year-old shot putter Li Meisu overcame creaky knees to win a gold medal at the Asian Games Tuesday, but the fledgling baseball team was no match for a South Korean pitcher who struck out eight in a row.
"I feel that in some events athletes retire too early," said Li, who last won Asian Games gold in 1982. She won an Olympic bronze in 1988, but now competes with a limp and against her doctors' advice.
She called the latest gold a present for the 6th birthday of her son. Li won it with a throw of 18.96 meters, ahead of compatriot Cheng Xiaoyan, who took silver with 18.55.
It was one of eight golds China won Tuesday, boosting its total for the games to 92. Its victories included a sweep of both volleyball titles, with victories over South Korea in both the women's and men's finals.
South Korea was next with 47 golds, and was favored in baseball, where pitcher Kim Byung-hyun struck out 12 batters -- including eight in a row -- in six innings of relief as the Koreans beat China 9-2.
That put South Korea in the gold medal game against Japan, a 9-8 winner over Taiwan in the day's other semifinal. And it still has Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Park Chan-ho rested and ready.
Japan had 41 golds after winning three in track and field, three in its native sport of karate, and one in synchronized swimming.
Yasunori Uchitomi, disappointed by gaining only bronze in his hometown of Hiroshima in the 1994 Asian Games, won the 3,000-meter steeplechase ahead of Hamid Sajdjadi-Hazaveh of Iran.
Men's 100-meter champion Koji Ito anchored Japan's 4 x 100-meter relay team to victory, and Masaki Morinaga won the men's long jump.
Aside from the shot put gold, China had a victory in the women's relay, anchored by 100 champion Li Xuemei.
South Korea gained golds Tuesday in archery, soft tennis and equestrian individual dressage. Archer Kim Jo-sun finished first by defeating teammate Lee Eun-kyung, the 1992 Olympic champion, in a three-arrow shootout.
The Koreans gained their third soft tennis gold with a victory over a Taiwan pair in women's doubles, but Taiwan broke the monopoly by winning the men's doubles.
Horse riders Suh Jung-kyun, Shin Chang-moo and Choi Myung-jin swept the top three positions in dressage, but Japan's Toshihide Takechi took bronze under games' rules limiting one nation to only two medals in any event.
In the South Asian sport of kabaddi, defending champion India clinched another gold medal. Going into the final day Wednesday, the Indians had a perfect 6-0 record, out of reach of closest competitors Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
China and Kazakstan each won individual pursuit races in cycling. Kazakstan's Vadim Kravchenko beat Japan's Noriyuki Iijima in the men's 4-kilometer race, 4 minutes, 42.799 seconds to 4:45.215. China's Wang Qingzhi defeated teammate Zhao Haijuan in the women's 3-kilometer race.
Kazakstan also had gold from pole vaulter Igor Potapovich, who placed fourth at the 1996 Olympics.
Kazakstan had 16 golds, just behind the 17 for Taiwan, which also won one in karate Tuesday.
Japan's Miya Tachibana won her second gold of these games when she teamed with Miho Takeda for the synchronized swimming duet title, ahead of South Korea's Yoo Na-mi and Jang Yoon-kyeong.
Japan's Atsuko Wakai took gold in the women's kata competition of karate, in which competitors are rated on style. She outscored Indonesia's Ompi Omita-Olga, 42.9 to 41.9.
China pulled ahead of South Korea in fencing golds, four to three, by beating Japan 45-35 in the men's team foil final.
The Chinese also took two table tennis golds, with Wang Nan's victory over compatriot Li Ju in women's singles, and Kong Linghui and Liu Guoliang's men's doubles victory over South Koreans Lee Chul-seung and Oh Sang-eun.
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