Asian Games provide drama
Thai soccer miracle ends; South Koreans celebrate victories
Posted: Wednesday December 16, 1998 03:17 PM
BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) -- Kuwait ended Thailand's 'miracle' run
in Asian Games soccer Wednesday, scoring even before the Thais
touched the ball in a semifinal some fans in the host nation
couldn't bear to watch to the end.
That left the day's major celebrating to the South Koreans. U.S.
Major League pitcher Park Chan-ho led his team to a 13-1 trouncing
of archrival Japan for the baseball gold medal, and Kim Taek-soo
upset China's Liu Guoliang for the men's singles gold in table
tennis.
"I am the champion," the elated Kim said, after leaping into
the air and then into his coach's arms. He had stopped a Chinese
sweep of all seven table tennis golds.
The Korean baseball team tossed Park and several other players
in the air, and ran a victory lap with two large Korean flags.
But at the 60,000-seat soccer stadium, which had been filled to
overflowing, some fans threw water bottles toward the field and
many more left early, unable to bear the final minutes of the
Thais' 3-0 loss to Kuwait.
In the first 28 seconds, Kuwait back Nohyr al-Shammari took the
ball down the flank and floated it across to the far post, where
Husain al-Khodhari headed past Thai goalie Chaiyong Khumpiam for
the first goal.
In the other semifinal, Iran frustrated China yet again, winning
1-0 and setting up an all-Middle Eastern final. China was weakened
by the absence of star striker Hao Haidong and its English coach,
Bobby Houghton, both serving suspensions.
Iran's striker Ali Daei, from Bayern Munich, sent a free kick
that Sayed Ali Mosavi-Hasanzadeh booted twice - once into Chinese
goalie Jiang Jin and, on the rebound, into the net.
The Thais, who talked of a miracle after beating favored South
Korea in sudden death extra time despite having two players sent
off, still have a chance for a bronze medal in a game against
China.
South Korea's Park, who usually pitches for the Los Angeles
Dodgers, needed to throw only seven innings under baseball's mercy
rule, which shortens games to that limit if one team is leading by
10 runs. He struck out four and walked two.
Earlier, Taiwan, best known for its Little League exploits,
defeated cross-strait rival China 10-6 for the bronze medal.
In table tennis, Kim, the world No. 11, won 21-16, 21-14, 22-20
against Liu, the world No. 2 and the Olympic singles and doubles
champion.
Though the Chinese missed their first table tennis gold sweep in
20 years, they still were happy with six golds, after Wang Nan and
Li Ju won the women's doubles, 21-7, 21-8 against Hong Kong's Chan
Tan-lui and Song Ah-sim.
With some of their established stars left home, the Chinese were
developing a new generation of table tennis players here.
In all, China won four gold medals Wednesday, boosting its total
to 96 with three full days of competition left in the games. It
triumphed in women's epee team fencing, in softball with a 5-0
victory over Japan, and in women's sprint cycling.
South Korea had 51 after also winning four - Kim's and the
baseball team's, plus one in archery and one in handball.
Third-place Japan raised its total to 43 with a victory each in
karate and men's sprint cycling.
The Philippines won its first gold of these games when Gandy
Valee and Romeo Villanueva beat Taiwan's Lai Chia-hsiung and Chang
Hao-ping 13-2 in the final of 9-ball pool doubles.
Japan had to share Wednesday's golds in its native sport of
karate with Kuwait and Iran. Japan's Ryoki Abe won the gold for
best style, but Kuwait's Jaber Alhammad and Iran's Ali-Reza
Katiraei won in actual combat.
That left Japan with four of the seven gold medals decided in
these games. Taiwan also had one.
Taiwan also picked up a gold in the taijiquan division of wushu,
a general term for Chinese martial arts. Chan Ming-shu outscored
Japan's Toshiya Watanabe and Vietnam's Nguyen Anh Minh. It was
Taiwan's 18th gold overall.
The Thais' hopes in soccer came as they already had accomplished
their best Asian Games ever, with 13 gold medals in hand.
Tamarine Tanasugarn, the women's top seed, gave them another
chance by beating China's Yi Jingqian 7-6 (7-4), 6-2 in the tennis
semifinals. She next faces third seed Yayuk Basuki of Indonesia,
who ousted China's Li Fang 7-6 (7-3), 6-1.
In the South Asian sport of kabaddi, Pakistan beat Japan 24-7
and won the silver medal. Defending champion India already had
climbed the gold with a perfect 6-0 record and did not play
Wednesday.
South Korea's men archers, like their women teammates the
previous day, swept the top three places in individual competition.
Korea's Han Seung-hoon beat teammate Kim Kyung-ho 113-112 in the
final. The bronze went to Japan's Wataru Haraguchi under rules
limiting one country to two medals in any one event.
South Korea won the men's team handball gold with a 29-18
victory over Kuwait.
In cycling, China's Wang Yan, the games record holder, beat
teammate Jiang Cuihua in the women's sprint. Her winning times of
14.463 and 13.450, however, were well behind her games record of
11.725 set in 1994.
In the men's sprint, Yuichiro Kamiyama beat Japanese teammate
Noriaki Mabuchi, but didn't beat the games record of 10.567 he had
set in preliminaries here.
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