Hosts China swept the primary gold medals on the Asian Video games in Hangzhou on Sunday in an announcement of intent on day one of many area’s reply to the Olympics.
China claimed the primary gold when Zou Jiaqi and Qiu Xiuping dominated the ladies’s light-weight double sculls rowing to kick off a medal rush for the house nation.
China received 12 of the primary 19 golds on the Video games, with their rowers particularly emphatic. South Korea had been their nearest challengers with 4 golds in complete.
Zou and Qiu completed in 7min 6.78sec of their last, with Uzbekistan’s Luizakhon Islamova and Malika Tagmativa taking silver, virtually 10 seconds behind.
It was particularly satisfying for Zou, who hails from Hangzhou.
“I’m very excited because it’s my first Asian Video games,” she stated, clutching her gold medal.
“Stepping onto the rostrum in the present day is a brand new start line to assist us put together for subsequent 12 months’s Paris Olympics,” added Qiu.
The hosts quickly doubled up on the rowing lake as the lads’s light-weight double sculls gold was received by Fan Junjie and Solar Man, who completed 5 seconds away from India’s Arjun Lal Jat and Arvind Singh.
China received six of the seven golds on the Fuyang Water Sports activities Centre rowing venue on Sunday morning with solely Hong Kong’s Lam San-tung and Wong Wai-chun getting in on the celebration by successful the lads’s pairs.
China’s rip-roaring begin to the nineteenth Asian Video games additionally introduced golds in fashionable pentathlon, taking pictures and wushu.
China’s Qin Haiyang competes within the males’s 200m particular person medley last on the 2022 Asian Video games, Hangzhou, China, Sept. 24, 2023. (AFP Picture)
King Qin makes splash
Swimming is among the highlights of the Video games and can see seven finals afterward Sunday on the Hangzhou Olympic Centre Aquatic Sports activities Enviornment, the place China are additionally anticipated to dominate.
Triple breaststroke world champion Qin Haiyang upstaged Olympic gold medallist Wang Shun within the morning heats to qualify quickest for the lads’s 200-meter particular person medley last.
Qin burst onto the scene on the July world championships in Fukuoka, turning into the primary man in historical past to brush all three breaststroke titles and likewise setting a brand new world report within the 200-meters.
Tokyo Olympic gold medalist Zhang Yufei, additionally from the host nation, fired off a warning shot of her personal with a dominant 200-meter butterfly swim, touching greater than 3 seconds away from teammate Yu Liyan and Japan’s Airi Mitsui.
South Korean sensation Hwang Solar-woo acquired the higher of breakout Chinese language freestyler Pan Zhanle of their 100-meter warmth, although China’s Wang Haoyu certified quickest in 48.13.
Elsewhere, India’s girls cricketers ripped by way of Bangladesh, dismissing them for simply 51 within the first semifinal.
They knocked off their goal in simply 8.2 overs and can face Sri Lanka in Monday’s last of the Twenty20 competitors.
Different sports activities starting on Sunday included boxing, rugby sevens, hockey and eSports – the place superstars resembling South Korea’s “Faker” are anticipated to attract enormous crowds for its debut as a full Asian Video games medal occasion.
President Xi Jinping opened the Video games on Saturday evening after a delay of a 12 months due to China’s now-abandoned zero-COVID coverage.
With greater than 12,000 rivals from 45 nations and territories, the Asian Video games has extra contributors than the Olympics.
They may battle for medals in 40 sports activities throughout 54 venues.
Most occasions happen in Hangzhou, a metropolis of 12 million folks close to Shanghai, however some sports activities are being staged in cities as far afield as Wenzhou, 300 kilometers (180 miles) to the south.