The Democratic People's Republic of Korea won its first East Asian Games gold medal for 12 years on Monday afternoon.

Hong In Sun, 20, and 18-year-old team-mate Choe Kum Hui put DPR Korea on the golden trail by winning the women's 10-metre synchronised platform diving competition at Macau Olympic Aquatic Centre.

The pair garnered a total of 330.54 points for their five dives, leaving China's Yuan Peilin and Jia Tong in the silver medal position with 327.60 points. The Chinese said they had never competed against DPR Korea before, and anxiety led to some minor mistakes which proved costly.

Japan's Mai Nakagawa and Misako Yamashita won the bronze medal with a score of 302.40, ahead of Korea and Macau.

The gold was DPR Korea's first of this Games, and their first since winning 10 gold at the inaugural East Asian Games in Shanghai in 1993. They did not compete in the 1997 or 2001 editions in Pusan, Korea, and Osaka, Japan, respectively.

China's Luo Yutong won his second gold medal of the East Asian Games on Monday afternoon with a comfortable victory in the men's one-metre springboard final at the Macau Olympic Aquatic Centre.

One day after taking gold in the three-metre springboard event, Luo completed a diving double in convincing style.

He scored 479.85 points for his six dives, well ahead of compatriot and silver medal-winner Chen Jiaming, who was second with 456.12.

Japan's Ken Terauchi had to settle for his second bronze medal of the Games, finishing third again with 409.95.

Luo's second victory enabled China to maintain their stranglehold on the diving competition, with four wins in four events and six more to come.

East Asian super powers Korea and Japan finally hit the gold medal trail on Monday morning.

After a gold-free Sunday, when China and Macau won all 27 gold medals between them, Korea struck in wushu and bowling.

Lee Seung Kuen ended Korea's medal drought by winning the men's nanquan at Macau Forum with a score of 9.75 points, followed by Macau's Leong Hong Man (9.50) and Chinese Taipei's Peng Weichua (9.10).

Korea's second gold of the day came at the Bowling Centre, where Gye Min Young won the women's singles with a total of 1,350, two ahead of Tsai Hsinyi of Chinese Taipei. Korea also won the bronze through Kim Hyo Mi, who was a distant third with 1,322 points.

Aged just 19, Gye showed great composure in the closing stages of the six-round event to win the first of 12 bowling medals on offer.

Japan's first gold of the Games was supplied by the women's soft tennis team, who beat Korea 2-1 in the final at the new Tennis Academy.

Chinese Taipei had claimed the bronze by defeating China 3-0 in the play-off for third place the previous day.

The second wushu medal of the morning went to China's Chen Min (9.88), who won the women's changquan, ahead of Macau's Han Jing (9.65) and China's Ma Lan (9.61).

In women's basketball, Korea beat a young and inexperienced DPR Korea 72-62.

Korea wasted no time in winning their first gold medal of the East Asian Games on Monday morning.

Lee Seung Kuen was the hero of the hour, taking the men's nanquan title in the wushu tournament at Macau Forum.

The gold was an early birthday gift for Lee, who will celebrate his 28th birthday on November 3.

Lee was awarded 9.75 points ahead of Macau's Leong Hong Man, who took silver with 9.50. Chinese Taipei's Peng Weichua won the bronze with 9.10.

Later in the morning, China's Chen Min won the women's changquan with a score of 9.88, followed by Macau favourite Han Jing (9.65) and Ma Lan of China (9.61).

This took China's wushu gold tally to 10 in 14 events, with five more to be decided later Monday. Macau has three gold and Korea one.

The ceremony of the "Olympic Knowledge Book Presentation" was held at Luso-Chinese Vocational School on the morning of October 31, 2005. With the aim of enhancing the understanding of the Macau citizens toward Beijing, the host city of the 2008 Olympic Games, the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG) presented Olympic knowledge books in traditional Chinese characters to the primary and secondary students of the schools and introduced to them Beijing's preparations for the 2008 Olympic Games.

In his address, Executive Vice President of BOCOG Li Binghua said that since the establishment of BOCOG and in the course of its preparations for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, the Committee had been devoted to promoting the Olympic Spirit to the young generation in order to encourage their understanding, participation and enthusiasm for the Olympic Games. It was in line with this principle that BOCOG presented Olympic knowledge books to the students, hoping that through the active combination of pictures and text, the students could know more about the Olympic Games and BOCOG's preparations for the Games in 2008. He also hoped that the presentation of books could foster friendship between Beijing and Macau citizens, to achieve the theme of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games - "One World, One Dream".

The ceremony was attended by Director of the Department of Publicity & Cultural Affairs of the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in Macao, Kong Fanzhuang, Vice Director of Media and Communications Department of BOCOG Shao Shiwei, Chairman of Macao 4th East Asian Games Organising Committee Mr. Manuel Silvério, Director of Education and Youth Affairs Bureau Sou Chio Fai, Acting Deputy Director of Education and Youth Affairs Bureau Leong Lai and Director of the Information Office of Beijing Municipal
People's Government Wang Hui.

BOCOG presented a total of 30,000 books, including 10,000 volumes of "Olympic Knowledge Book for Secondary Students" and 10,000 two-volume sets of "Olympic Knowledge Book for Primary Students".

Japan and Chinese Taipei won the gold medals in the team events of the soft tennis competition on Monday.

Japan beat Korea 2-1 in the women's final, with Chinese Taipei taking the bronze, and Chinese Taipei defeated Japan 2-1 in the men's final. Korea won the bronze.

For both delegations it was their first gold medal of the fourth East Asian Games.

A spokesman for the victorious Japanese women's team said they were delighted to be in Macau to compete at the Games.

"We have won the gold medal and achieved our goal," said the spokesman.

"It's also good preparation ahead of next year's Asian Games in Doha. We have been able to test the level of our players and to improve."

As for Chinese Taipei, they said Japan had kept them under pressure throughout the final and they had gained valuable experience from this.

China ended the second day of the weightlifting competition with a perfect record of six gold medals from six events at the Macau Stadium Pavilion.

Deng Jianying won the women's 53 kg division, Chen Chufu took the men's 69 kg category, and Chen Yanqing completed a second-day sweep in the women's 58 kg class.

With 15 gold medals to be contested, China are on course for a weightlifting whitewash.

Chinese Taipei had two silver and one bronze, Korea had two silver, DPR Korea had one silver and three bronze, Japan had one silver and one bronze, and Mongolia had one bronze.

Deng summed up the spirit, confidence and determination in the Chinese camp, saying: "I just performed to my normal level, and we all want to keep improving and look forward to the 2008 Olympics," she said.

Macau's wushu queen Han Jing teamed up with golden girl Huang Yanhui to earn the host city a seventh gold medal at the East Asian Games on Monday night.

The pair won the women's duilian with a score of 9.69 points, ahead of Hong Kong and Chinese Taipei.

Han had been Macau's only previous East Asian Games gold medal-winner coming into this fourth edition of the regional multi-sports event, but had been restricted to two silver medals prior to the women's duilian.

Huang, on the other hand, had claimed the first gold medal of the Games on Sunday morning, and the pair proved irresistible together.

Han thanked the Macau SAR Government, the wushu association and the public for their support.

"We performed well, but it wasn't our best," she said, adding that a big and expectant crowd in Macau Forum had made them slightly nervous.

Their next competition will be the world championship on December 8.

Macau finished the 19-event wushu competition with four gold medals. China had 13, and Korea and Hong Kong one each.

China surged ahead at the top of the medals table at the end of the third day of the fourth East Asian Games on Monday night.

Of the 45 gold medals available so far, China have won 31, Macau seven, Korea three, and Chinese Taipei, Japan, DPR Korea and Hong Kong one each.

Mongolia and Guam complete the list of nine competing NOCs.

China have 31 gold, five silver and four bronze for a total of 40, while Macau's early-Games form has reaped seven gold, 12 silver and six bronze for a 25-medal haul.

Wushu and bowling (two) gave Korea their first three gold medals of the Games on Monday, while Chinese Taipei and Japan won soft tennis titles, DPR Korea took a diving gold and Hong Kong a wushu team gold.

There will be 22 gold medals available on Tuesday, which sees the start of the 45-event track and field competition at Macau Stadium.

Hong Kong finally claimed their first gold medal of the East Asian Games on Monday evening when they won the men's duilian event of the wushu tournament at Macau Forum.

Chinese Taipei were second and Macau third.

Hong Kong team manager Philip Choy Kin Cheung said he was very pleased to finish the wushu competition with one gold, one silver and one bronze.

"We thought we could have done better but our chances did not work on our side because mainly we have a number of athletes who have serious injuries," said Choy.

"We were very surprised with the other countries and regions, like Chinese Taipei, Japan, Korea. We see a very rapid and significant improvement, and also Macau, so I think we did exceedingly well."

China and Japan fought out a tense diving duel in the women's three-metre springboard final on Monday evening, filling the top four places at Macau Olympic Aquatic Centre.

In the end, China finished first and third, with Japan second and fourth, in a competition missing China's reigning Olympic champion in the discipline, Guo Jingjing.

Guo had won the one-metre springboard event the previous evening, and in her absence Ma Qianli took the three-metre title with 338.64 points.

Ryoko Nishii won the silver with 325.26, and Xu Mian was third with a score of 323.37, well ahead of Japan's Erii Higuchi.

Ma was not happy with her display, though.

"I wasn't satisfied with my performance because I know I can do much better," she said.

"In the end I was just glad to win the gold."

The diving competition finishes Tuesday with four more events.

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The pins fell and so did the records as Korea rolled to an impressive bowling double on Monday in the two singles events.

After Gye Min Young had won the women's singles, Kang Hee Won followed up in the men's singles to give Korea the first two of 12 gold medals on offer at the Bowling Centre.

Kang won the men's singles with 1,505 points, ahead of Japan's Yoshinao Masatoki with 1,378.

Korea's Joung Seoung Ju took the bronze with 1,354, as the top three finishers all beat the old East Asian Games record of 1,346, set by Wu Chih-Chan of Chinese Taipei at Osaka in 2001.

"I am very proud to win this gold medal for Korea," said Kang, 23.

"It was a good competition but I was able to play at my best to win the gold.

"Now I want to win the team competition and hope to become the best in the world."

Earlier in the day, Gye had taken the women's singles, recovering from a nervy start.

"Macau's new to me so I didn't play at my best early on, but the support of my team cheered me up and I was able to get some strikes after that," she said.

"I really want to thank my coach and friends for this success."

With 10 more medals to be contested, the Koreans have set the standards for their rivals to follow.

Golf is not an East Asian Games sport, but there was some friendly competition on the course on Monday at the Games' VIP golf tournament.

The winning team was Kuan Hin Meng, Roberto Sousa, Tam Pac Ip and Iau Kam Hoi, who returned a score of 59.56.

In second place was Kim Jang Hwan, Kim Myong Jin, Leung Kam Hung and Lei Iau Cheong (59.62), followed by the team of Koi Kuok Ieng, Chao A Pui, Philip Chiu and Ieong Siu Tai (60.75).

The quartet of Jack Li, Wong Chu, Victor Wu and Margaret Hong were fourth with 63.31, with Li Cheng, Johnny Senna, Dorothy Ng and Wendy Li in fifth position with 63.69.

Individual awards: Nearest pin on sixth hole, Wong Chu; nearest pin on fourth hole, Johnny Senna; longest drive on 18th, Kunio Muraishi; longest drive on eight, Tim Noonan; straightest drive on 10th, Cliff Chan.

Rank Country Gold Silver Bronze Total
1 China 31 5 4 40
2 Macau 7 12 6 25
3 South Korea 3 6 6 15
4 Chinese Taipei 1 10 13 24
5 Japan 1 8 9 18
6 North Korea 1 3 5 9
7 Hong Kong 1 1 2 4
8 Mongolia 0 0 5 5
9 Guam 0 0 0 0

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Men's Team Final
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China made a confident start in the men's basketball tournament by beating Macau 94-43 in the opening game at Tap Seac Multisport Pavilion on Saturday.

From the moment Yi Jianlian, China's 18-year-old, 2.12-metre forward, won the tip-off and Wang Shipeng drained the first of his six three-pointers, the result was never in doubt.

But Macau hung on gamely, and there was no disgrace in defeat against such a tall, talented and young Chinese team.

Yi, who scored 15 points, three fewer than the impressive outside shooter Wang, said China had not played to their maximum level.

"It was only half power, because we were playing against our brothers," he said.

The seven teams will play a round-robin format, with the top four qualifying for the semi-finals.

Full results Day 1 (29/10/2005):

China vs Macau 94-43
Honk Kong vs Japan 59-88
Chinese Taipei vs South Korea 75-56

MACAO, October 31 (Xinhua) -- China was pushed to its limit on Monday before overcoming Chinese Taipei 68-65 in the men's basketball preliminary round at the East Asian Games in Macao.

In the day's other action, Japan crushed Macao 97-43 while Hong Kong beat Mongolia 75-67.

China, without NBA star Yao Ming, looked anything but the reigning Asian champions in the match, and went only 13-for-41 from the field against Chinese Taipei's 19-for-44.

Wang Shipeng was the top scorer for China with 21 points. Yi Jianlian, a promising center who stands 2.12m tall, had 18 points and grabbed 10 rebounds.

Tien Lei led Chinese Taipei with 11 points, including a three- pointer.

China established a 22-21 lead in the first quarter, but its rivals overtook at 39-33 at halftime.

The mainlanders managed to regain the upper hand in the third quarter by scoring 21 points to Chinese Taipei's 13.

China outscored Chinese Taipei 14-13 in the last period before sealing the hard-earned victory.

China's medal machine cranked out another four gold on the first morning of the East Asian Games athletics competition at Macau Stadium on Tuesday.

They won all four of the nine-event opening day, even without the services of Athens Olympics 10,000 metres champion Xing Huina, who is entered only in the women's 5,000 metres.

In her absence, Bao Guiying took the 10,000-metre gold in 32 minutes, 35.07 seconds, ahead of Japan's Hiromi Ominami, who was second in 32:36.62. Paek Hyang Ok of DPR Korea won the bronze in a time of 34:53.06.

In the field events, Li Meiju won the women's shot put with her modest first throw of 18.12 metres, well below her personal best of 19.05, and Wu Tao finished first in the men's discus with 61.74 metres, ahead of compatriot Tulake Nuermaimaiti, who hails from the Xinjiang Uigur Autonomous Region.

China also recorded a 1-2 finish in the women's high jump, with Jing Xuezhu taking gold with a clearance of 1.85, the same height as second-placed Zheng Xingjuan but with fewer faults.

China won the first gold medal of the East Asian Games athletics competition at Macau Stadium on a drizzly and overcast Tuesday morning.

It came from Li Meiju in the women's shot put, and was the first of 45 gold medals on offer over four days in track and field.

Li's first throw of 18.12 metres turned out to be the best of the five competitors, as Japan's Yoko Toyonaga took silver with a personal best 16.89 and China's left-handed Liu Yingfan the bronze with 16.50.

The 26-year-old Li had entered the event with a best distance of 19.05 metres, and she acknowledged that she just did enough to win here without exerting herself.

"It was below my normal form, but the competition is not strong in this event," said Li, who took up the discipline nine years ago when her coach decided her future lay in the shot put rather than hammer or javelin.

Getting better!

That's the positive approach taken by Macau's basketball ace Leong Chi Seng.

His team had just lost their third straight game, 120-78 to Chinese Taipei in the preliminary round of the men's tournament, but Leong was far from depressed.

"Of the three games we have played, this one was the best," said Leong, who netted a team-high 23 points.

"The fact that we scored 78 points against Chinese Taipei is good for the team, and has given us confidence for our next game against Mongolia."

Macau lost 94-43 to China and 97-43 to Japan before scoring more freely against Chinese Taipei, but also slackening on defence.

After a round-robin format, the top four of the seven teams advance to the semi-finals.

China's "Flying Spectacles Man" Hu Kai offered a vision of the future in winning the men's 100-metre sprint at the East Asian Games on Tuesday afternoon.

The reigning World University Games champion from Tsinghua University can now claim to be the fastest man in East Asia, too, after finishing first in 10.40 seconds.

Japan's Shingo Kawabata took the silver in 10.54, and Chinese Taipei's Wang Shihwen was third in 10.63.

The 23-year-old Hu is famous in China, not just for his Universiade success in Turkey in August but also because he runs in spectacles on the advice of doctors, who warned that contact lenses could cause discomfort.

Hu said two false starts to his race had helped him focus on the task in hand.

"They allowed me to gain a bit of tempo to my start," he said.

"My mind and my muscles are feeling tired, and I wasn't well prepared for the race, but the two false starts helped me reorganize my mental condition.

"The time is not important because I've just been competing at the National Games and I've had many races in 2005. My next target is the Asian Games in Doha next year, and then the Olympics in Beijing."

Hu won a silver in the 100 metres at the National Games in Nanjing last month, and has no plans to focus solely on sprinting. He earned his place at the prestigious Tsinghua University through his academic ability in economics and management, and said he planned to continue studying for his Masters degree in 2011.

In the women's race, Qin Wangping won gold for China in 11.65, ahead of compatriot Shu Yan (11.76) and Japan's Ayumi Suzuki (11.95).

Qin won the 100 and 200-metre titles at the National Games, and felt she could have been sharper in Macau if there had been a heat rather than a straight final.

Korea underlined their bowling dominance again on Tuesday when they won their third consecutive medal at the Bowling Centre.

After claiming the women's and men's singles on Monday, Korea followed up by winning the men's doubles ahead of Japan and Chinese Taipei.

Taking his second gold medal in two days, singles champion Kang Hee Won was partnered by Choi Jong In, and their total of 2,834 over six ends was 27 better than Japan's Masaru Ito and Hirofumi Morimoto.

Chinese Taipei's bronze medal-winners were Hsiao Chinliang and Tsai Tingyun, who were a massive 208 pins off the pace with 2,626.

Korea also finished fourth and fifth, as the leading eight pairs all broke the previous East Asian Games record of 2,570 set by Japan's Nobuyuki Takahama and Kosei Wada at the first edition in 1993.

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MACAU -- If there's one place Japan is confident about holding its own against China's juggernaut at the East Asian Games, it's in the pool.

With only one gold medal to 33 for Asian rival China after three days of competition in Macau, Japan has given up a massive lead in the standings.

But team officials are confident that a group of promising young swimmers can help close the gap.

Athens Olympic medalists Kosuke Kitajima, Ai Shibata and Takashi Yamamoto all decided to sit out the games. Instead, Japan will look to up-and-coming prospects Takeshi Matsuda, Yuko Nakanishi and Aya Terakawa.

"We're hoping for a gold rush in the pool," Japan's deputy chef de mission Koji Sakurai said Tuesday. "Many of these athletes, like Nakanishi, represent the next generation of Japanese swimming."

Matsuda won silver in the 200 butterfly at the world championships in Montreal in July. The 21-year-old is widely regarded as one of Japan's brightest prospects.

"He's one of best young swimmers," said Sakurai. "We're hoping for big things from him."

Nakanishi, who carried the flag for Japan at the opening ceremonies on Saturday, won bronze in the 200-meter butterfly at Athens and again in Montreal.

Terakawa, 20, won the women's 100 and 50 backstroke at the University Games in August and will be looking for a strong performance here along with 23-year-old Genki Imamura, winner of the bronze medal in the men's 200 breaststroke in Montreal.

There are 40 swimming gold medals on offer at the Macau Olympic Aquatic Center and Japan, which won eight medals in swimming in Athens for their best postwar Olympic performance in the pool, is hoping to get a large share of those.

Japan traditionally performs well in synchronized swimming and is hoping that 23-year-old swimmers Emiko Suzuki and Saho Harada can live up to those high standards.

China didn't win any swimming events at Montreal and managed only five medals overall.

The nation's swimming program is still in the recovery and rebuilding phase after 32 Chinese swimmers were entangled in doping offenses in the 1990s.

Luo Xuejuan, the 100-meter breaststroke champion from Athens, is the only Olympic gold medalist in China's swim squad here.

Among rising stars are 15-year-old swimmer Yang Jieqiao, who clinched gold in the 400-meter and 800-meter freestyle at the national games.

Like Japan, China will be using these games to develop future prospects for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. (AP)

November 1, 2005

Chinese Wu Tao and Tulake Nuermainaiti took the top two places in the men's discus throw final at the East Asian Games in Macau on Tuesday.

Wu threw 61.74 meters, beating his teammate by 2.53 meters.

South Korean Choi Jong-bum was third with 54.19.

China also swept the top two in women's high jump.

Jing Xuezhu cleared1.85 meters for the gold while Zheng Xingjuan took the silver with the same height.

South Korean Park In-hee won the bronze with1.70.

In womne's shot put event, Chinese Li Meiju took the crown with a toss of 18.12 meters.

Japanese Yoko Toyonaga picked the silver with 16.89 meters and Chinese Liu Yingfan took the bronze with 16.50 meters.

Chinese sprinters have won both the men's and women's 100m races at the ongoing East Asian Games in Macau and captured four more golds in athletics.

Universiade champion Hu Kai of China clocked 10.40 seconds to win the men's 100m at the East Asian Games Tuesday in Macau.

Japan Shingo Kawabata finished second in 10.54 and Chinese Taipei's Wang Shih-wen was third in 10.63.

Earlier in women's 100m race, China's Qin Wangping and Shu Yan finished 1-2.

Qin clocked 11.65 seconds, 0.11 ahead of Shu, with Ayumi Suzuki of Japan taking the bronze in 11.95.

MACAU -- Japan is off to a slow start at the 4th East Asian Games, lagging far behind Asian rival China and struggling even to keep up with host Macau.

Heading into Tuesday's events, Japan had only one gold medal compared with 33 for China. And that medal came from soft tennis, a sport that originated in Japan.

Japan was even behind tiny Macau, which had collected seven gold medals through the first three days of competition -- a 700 percent increase on its return from three previous Games.

Japan arrived in Macau with 470 athletes, most of them young and inexperienced, but Japanese officials said Tuesday it was all part of the master plan.

"Our goal here is to give our young athletes a chance to get some international experience," said Japan's deputy chef de mission Koji Sakurai. "We're looking ahead to the (2006) Asian Games in Doha and the Beijing Olympics in 2008."

Japan won a total of 190 medals when it hosted the last East Asian Games in Osaka in 2001. But with judo and wrestling not on the program here, Sakurai admitted it will be tough to match those numbers.

Japan, currently fourth on the medals table, is hoping to make up some lost ground on China in athletics, which begin Tuesday, and swimming, which gets underway Wednesday.

"Those are strong events for us and we expect a surge in medals starting today," added Sakurai.

In Athens, Japan finished with eight medals in swimming -- third overall behind the United States and Australia.

China's swimming program, meanwhile, is still in the recovery and rebuilding phase after 32 Chinese swimmers were entangled in doping offenses in the 1990s.

In athletics, Sakurai said hopes are high for the men's team in the long-distance events.

Despite the lopsided medal standings so far, Sakurai said Japan isn't feeling the pressure from China.

"We just go at our own pace," said Sakurai. "Going up against China and South Korea in a setting like this is a great experience for our athletes."

In Athens, Japan won 16 gold medals to match a previous high set at the Tokyo Olympics in 1964. The solid Olympic performance may be a reason why the nation has placed less importance on regional events like the East Asian Games.

Sakurai, however, rejected that notion.

"This is a very important event," said Sakurai. "The organization and the facilities are superb but we just decided it's important to start building for the future here."

The East Asian Games, attracting 1,900 athletes from nine nations and territories, offers 234 gold medals in 17 sports and finishes on Sunday. (AP)

November 1, 2005

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Japan will be hoping that the start of the swimming competition on Wednesday can move them closer to runaway leaders China in the medals table at the fourth East Asian Games.

At the end of the fourth day on Tuesday, China have 48 gold and 67 medals in all, while Japan have a meagre three gold - four fewer than Macau - and 35 in all.

But there will be 40 swimming gold medals to be won over the next five days, and Japan will be eyeing a big catch, despite the absence of double Olympic breaststroke champion Kosuke Kitajima and Athens golden girl, freestyler Ai Shibata.

It will be another hectic day at Macau Stadium, too, where the Games' biggest attraction will be in action at 9.35am.

The "Shanghai Express" Liu Xiang, who tied the world record of 12.91 seconds in winning the men's 110-metre hurdles in Athens last summer, is expected to win comfortably here, with the biggest threat coming from his team-mate, Shi Dongpeng.

Day Five of the nine-day multi-sports event will also bring the start of the 14-medal shooting competition, in which China will field past and present Olympic champions such as Jia Zhanbo, Zhu Qinan, Yang Ling and Du Li.

The 67 gold medals to date have been won by China (48), Macau (7), Korea (5), Japan (3), Chinese Taipei (2), DPR Korea (1) and Hong Kong (1).

Mongolia and Guam have still to open their gold account, but Mongolia have won five bronze medals.

With two Olympic champions alongside each other and a large crowd willing them to victory, there was only ever going to be one result in the women's three-metre synchronised springboard competition on Tuesday evening¡K

Another gold medal for China's "Diving Dream Team" of Li Ting and Guo Jingjing.

The pair hold three Olympic titles between them from Athens last summer, and this was evident as their five-dive points tally of 337.20 left their rivals trailing at Macau Olympic Aquatic Centre.

Japan's Misako Yamashita and Ryoko Nishii took the silver medal with 282.24, followed by Lu Entien and Lu Hsin of Chinese Taipei with 258.24.

Poolside pin-up Guo will be going home to Beijing on Wednesday with two gold medals, but she said that was not the main reason for competing in the East Asian Games.

"We wanted to give a reward to the people of Macau for all their support," she said.

"Even though we did not feel under any pressure, we still took it seriously and tried our best.

"I've really enjoyed my time in Macau, and I think Macau has some good young divers who have plenty of time to improve."

Guo, a three-time Olympian, won the three-metre springboard and three-metre synchronised springboard title with Wu Minxia in Athens, while Li won the 10-metre synchronised platform gold with Lao Lishi.

Lin Yue rounded off the 10-event diving competition by winning the men's 10-metre platform, giving China their ninth gold medal.

They missed out only to DPR Korea in the women's 10-metre synchronised platform in one of the biggest shocks of the Games to date.

A day after winning the soft tennis men's team gold, Chinese Taipei triumphed again on Tuesday as Wang Chunyen won the men's singles.

In the final, Wang defeated Korea's Choi Bong Kwon 4-2. Japan's Sosei Sugano took the bronze, 4-2 against Korea's Bae Hwan Sung.

"I'm very excited because it's the first time I've won a gold medal in singles," said the 25-year-old Wang.

"When I fell behind I was determined to put my worries aside and get my strategy right. Before the game I didn't feel under any pressure. I just wanted to play my best."

In the women's doubles, Japan's Harumi Gyokusen and Ayumi Ueshima beat Korea's Kim Kyung Ryun and Lee Kyung Pyo 5-2. Japan also won the bronze through Kanako Kono and Hiromi Hamanaka, who beat Korea's Lee Bok Soon and Kim Ji Eun 5-1.

Japan and Chinese Taipei now have two golds each, with the last two soft tennis events to be contested on Wednesday.

There's not much to China's Jiang Lishuang.

Aged just 13, Jiang is only 1.48 metres tall and weighs a feather-like 30 kg.

But inside the bird-like frame is a lion-sized heart, and a talent for diving that won her the gold medal in the women's 10-metre platform on Tuesday with a score of 406.59 points.

She saved her best for last, earning a 9.0 from all seven judges for a dive with a 3.4 degree of difficulty.

"I am very satisfied with my performance because I didn't make any big mistakes, especially on the last dive," she said.

China also won gold in the men's three-metre synchronised springboard event through Xu Hao and Chen Jiaming.

The pair have been together for five years, but 24-year-old Chen announced his retirement from the national team after this event.

Some things change, such as East Asian Games records.

And some things just stay the same, such as Korea's total domination of the bowling alleys.

Victory for Choi Ji Na and Kim Yeau Jin in the women's doubles final on Tuesday afternoon gave Korea their fourth gold medal in four events.

The leading seven pairs all beat the previous East Asian Games record of 2,524, set by Korea's Nam Bo Ra and Kim Min Jung in Osaka four years ago.

Choi and Kim chalked up 2,813 pins, ahead of compatriots Kim Hyo Mi and Kim Sook Yung (2,662) and Japan's Haruka Matsuda and Kumi Fukuda (2,626).

Women's singles champion Gye Min Young was fourth this time, partnered by Gang Hye Eun.

A total of 12 gold medals are available at the Bowling Centre.

Japan's Yuki Nakamura prevented a Chinese "redwash" on the opening day of the athletics competition at Macau Stadium.

Nakamura won the gold medal in the men's 10,000 metres in a field of three, which was one more than the entry list on the morning of the race indicated.

Nakamura came home in 31 minutes, 59.69 seconds, 0.03 seconds ahead of Korea's Lee Du Haeng, who clocked 31:59.72 for silver. Macau's Iao Kuan Un was the late entry and went home with a bronze medal in 34:55.56.

"I was preparing for a two-man race, and had planned to watch my opponent in the early stages and then run my own pace," said Nakamura.

"But my condition wasn't so good and I decided to concentrate on the finish as I am confident about my sprint."

China won the other eight gold medals on the first day of the track and field competition, including the men's and women's 100 metres.

Rank Country Gold Silver Bronze Total
1 China 48 14 5 67
2 Macau 7 12 7 26
3 South Korea 5 12 12 29
4 Japan 3 14 18 35
5 Chinese Taipei 2 10 16 28
6 North Korea 1 4 8 13
7 Hong Kong 1 1 2 4
8 Mongolia 0 0 5 5
9 Guam 0 0 0 0

MACAU: Cold War rivals North and South Korea met here on Tuesday to discuss fielding a joint team at next year’s Asian Games and the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Officials from both sides held talks on the sidelines of the ongoing East Asian Games after reaching a provisional agreement last month. “We welcome the South delegation, and hope the talks bear fruit,” said North Korean Olympic Committee member Yun Yong-bok, according to Yonhap news agency. “We will, perhaps, have a long way to go, even to the fifth talks at a working-level,” said Yun. “Even though we adopt a joint statement, there remains a lot to be done by sports councils or federations from the two Koreas.”

Yun was part of a five-member delegation from communist North Korea while Kim Jung-haeng, vice president of the Korea Sports Council, headed the South Korean team, Yonhap said. Athletes and officials from both Koreas marched together during Saturday’s opening ceremony in a symbolic display of unity.

The Korean peninsula has been divided since 1948 and the two countries fought a war from 1950-53. The Koreas fielded unified teams for the World Table Tennis Championships and an international youth football competition, both in 1991. They also have marched together five times in Olympic opening and closing ceremonies. afp

MACAU (AP) - Tennis had travelled to Japan by the late 19th century, but there was one problem - there weren't enough furry tennis balls.

So the Japanese improvised, creating an alternative rubber, furless ball. The game of soft tennis was born. Soft tennis never made it big as an international sport, but the game has blossomed in eastern Asia. Strongholds include Japan, Taiwan and South Korea. China is up-coming. All these countries are at the fourth East Asian Games in Macau, considered a gathering of soft tennis' elite players.

It's also an Asian Games event but not included in the Olympics.

The best way to visualize soft tennis is to imagine squash played with a bigger ball on a tennis court and a net - and without walls.

Rallies appear to have less pace than regular tennis, but the balls still zing - perhaps due to the skidding.

The rallies can be just as long as in clay-court tennis. It's harder to overpower your opponent than in tennis because the game is slower.

Aces are rare. Soft tennis athletes serve overhand, but also underhanded. Spin is a key technique. The appropriately spun ball can just drop dead and catch your opponent flat-footed.

"Regular tennis is mainly known for power and speed. Soft tennis also depends on these two factors, but also spin because the ball is lighter and inflatable. It rises less. It's mainly about using spin and adding some power. But power and speed are not formidable," Chinese women's coach Bin Zhou said Tuesday.

Soft tennis strokes tend to have more of a whip-like motion than regular tennis.

"In regular tennis, you move your arm and major joints more. In soft tennis, you use your smaller joints more. That's how you generate whipping power," Bin said.

Soft tennis rackets resemble tennis rackets with smaller heads.

They look like the tennis rackets from the 1980s.

Soft tennis matches only consist of one set at the Macau competition, with singles using the best-of-seven games format and doubles playing up to nine. Scoring within individual games is similar to tennis. The net is higher than in tennis.

Chinese player Zhang Dan says the shorter sets make each point more competitive.

"The standards for each point are higher," he said.

In early action in Macau, Japan and Taiwan split top honours. Japan won the women's team event and the women's doubles, while Taiwan won gold in the men's teams event and Wang Chun-yen also clinched the men's singles.

Some of the world's top soft tennis players are in Macau, including men's singles world No. 2 Tsuneo Takagawa, No. 3 Yosuke Asakawa and women's singles world No. 1 Kanako Kono.

The international soft tennis tour schedule is short. Other than the East Asian Games in Macau, this year's program includes events in Tianjin, China, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and Budapest, Hungary.

MACAU (Kyodo) Japan won its first gold medal of the East Asian Games after a 2-1 victory over South Korea in the women's soft tennis team final on Monday.

Rie Watanabe and Atsuko Horikoshi trailed the South Koreans 4-2 in the final doubles match but fought back bravely to put Japan on the gold medal board. Japan's men's team picked up the silver after falling to Taiwan.

There were also silver medals for Yoshinao Masatoki in the men's singles bowling final won by South Korean Kang Hee Won, Japan's women's gymnastics team and diver Ryoko Nishii.

In women's gymnastics, Miki Uemura and Manami Ishizaka both delivered strong performances to help Japan to the silver with 145.022 points behind winners China.

China's Ma Qianli won the 3-meter springboard diving gold with 338.64 points, with Nishii edging out China's Xu Mian for the silver with 325.26.

Ken Terauchi collected his second diving bronze after finishing third in the men's 1-meter springboard final. Mai Nakagawa and Misako Yamashita took bronze in the women's 10-meter synchronized platform final.

North Korea's Hong In Sun and Choe Kum Hui upstaged powerhouse China to take the synchronized gold. It was North Korea's first gold medal in 12 years at the East Asian Games. The reclusive communist state sat out the 1997 and 2001 editions in Busan, South Korea, and Osaka.

In tennis, 15-year-old Ayumi Morita, Japan's youngest ever pro, got off to a strong start in the women's singles, taking just 40 minutes to crush Mongolian Natsagsuren Jigjidsuren 6-1, 6-0.

Japan's men's hockey team beat Taiwan 6-0 in their preliminary round match with the men's basketball team overpowering Macao 97-43.

China leads the medal standings with 31 gold, five silver and four bronze. Japan has one gold, eight silver and nine bronze.

The Japan Times: Nov. 2, 2005

MACAO, Nov. 1 (Xinhuanet) -- Chinese divers swept nine out of 10 gold medals at the East Asian Games after grabbing four more on Tuesday.

The last day of diving competition saw dual Olympic champion Guo Jingjing team up with Li Ting to easily win the women's 3m synchronized springboard title.

Guo and Li led after all five rounds at the super-modern Macao Olympic Aquatic Center and finished with 337.20 points.

Japanese Misako Yamashita and Ryoko Nishii placed second with 282.24 and Chinese Taipei's Lu En-tien and Lu Hsin came third with 258.24.

It was another easy win for the 24-year-old Guo, who is popular with Macao media and was mobbed on her arrival.

"I didn't feel any pressure," said Guo, who won the 1m springboard on Sunday.

When asked how she would celebrate her second victory, Guo said:"No party, no celebration."

"We will have go to the hotel to rest and will leave for Beijing tomorrow," she said.

Jiang Lishuang scored 406.59 points to win the women's 10m platform, beating second-placed teammate Wang Nan by 31.32.

DPR Korean Hong In-sun picked the bronze with 363.18 points.

In the men's 3m synchronized final, Xu Hao paired up with Chen Jiaming to score a winning total of 361.23 points and South Korea's Kwon Kyung-min and Cho Kwan-hoon finished second in 326.94.

Japan's Yoshihiro Sakata and Ken Terauchi was third in 322.29.

The men's 10m platform gold went to Lin Yue, who scored 523.14 points.

Lin was followed by his teammate Chen Zhang with 521.34 and South Korean Kim Jin-yong with 475.65.

The only goal which had slipped off Chinese hands in the three-day competition was the women's 10m synchronized platform, in which DPR Korea's Hong In-sun and Choe Kun-hui upset world champions Yuan Peilin and Jia Tong on Monday. Enditem

The last finisher in the men's 10,000 meters picked up the bronze medal as Japanese Yuki Nakamura won a three-man race at the East Asian Games on Tuesday.

In a rare scene in an international sport meeting, only three runners entered the 10,000m race and Nakamura completed the distance first in 31 minutes and 59.69 seconds, well off his entry result of 28.12.37.

South Korean Lee Du-haeng snatched the silver in 31:59.72 and Macao's Lao Kua Nun took the bronze in 34.55.56.

(Xinhua)

China's Shan Hong made an impressive start to the 14-event shooting competition by winning the women's 50-metre rifle prone by five points on Wednesday.

Shan scored 594 of a possible 600, three off the world record of 597 set by Russia's Marina Bobkova in 1998, to finish ahead of compatriot Xiong Meili (589) and Japan's Ako Sasaki, who won the bronze with 587.

Shan's scores were 99, 98, 99, 100, 99 and 99, and the only other athlete in the 10-strong field to shoot a maximum 100 was Korea's Lee Hyun Jeong, who finished seventh with 582.

China's powerful shooting team includes Athens Olympic champions Jia Zhanbo (men's 50-metre rifle, 3x40), Zhu Qinan (men's 10-metre air rifle rapid fire) and Du Li (women's 10-meter air rifle).

A gold medal in the men's 200 metres was just the first step of a longer process for Japan's Shinji Takahira on Wednesday morning at Macau Stadium.

The 21-year-old university student from Hokkaido, the northernmost of Japan's four main islands, won the 200 in 20.88 seconds, ahead of China's Yang Yaozu (21.34) and Korea's Seo Min Suk (21.42).

The time was outside the Games record of 20.34 and the Asian record of 20.03, both held by his Japanese team-mate, Shingo Suetsugu, who is not competing in Macau.

"I am very satisfied with the gold medal and with the time, as I want to be regarded as the top 200-metre runner in Japan," said Takahira.

"This was a good year for me as I competed at the World Championships in Helsinki and the University Games in Turkey, and I feel I am at about 70 per cent of my potential."

China's Chen Lisha won the women's 200 metres in 23.78, and China won both golds in the 20-kilometre walk: through Yu Chaohong in the men's in a new Games best of 1:23.51, and through Sydney Olympic champion Wang Liping in the women's, in 1:34.01.

China's Song Aimin set a new Games record of 64.32 metres in the women's discus; China's Huang Haiqiang won the men's high jump with a clearance of 2.23 metres, and Japan's Kumiko Ikeda won the women's long jump with a distance of 6.54 metres.

At the end of the morning session on the second day of the athletics programme, China had won 14 of the 17 gold medals available and Japan the other three.

The Deputy Chef de Mission of Japan, Koji Sakurai, is far from downcast by Japan's disappointing early showing in the East Asian Games.

Regarding the number of gold medals won after four days, China have disappeared over the horizon with 48 compared to Japan's three, and 67 of all colours compared to 35.

But Sakurai feels the Japanese athletes are learning a lot about international competition here in Macau, and next year there's the Asian Games in Doha on the road to Beijing 2008.

"China is very good and very strong," said Sakurai, at Macau Stadium on Wednesday morning during the athletics competition.

"We have brought young athletes to give them experience of international competition."

Sakurai pointed out that Japan was winning medals in most sports, admittedly not gold, and there was still the swimming competition to come.

"We are expecting many medals in swimming and athletics," he said, "but sports like wushu and taekwondo are not so familiar in Japan."

At the Athens Olympics in 2004, Japan won 16 gold medals, including eight in judo and two in women's wrestling, but neither of these is included in the East Asian Games schedule.

"We hope we can win the same amount in Beijing, as the JOC has another Gold Plan to promote the competition level," he said.

"In Japan, baseball and football are the two most popular sports, and we hope to participate in Beijing.

"But we must improve all team games."

With a smile on his face and another gold medal, Liu Xiang was the perfect ambassador for China and the East Asian Games on Wednesday.

He got everything right, during the race and after it, and further enhanced his standing as one of Asia's most popular and successful athletes.

Despite being the red-hot favourite to win the men's 110-metre hurdles, his victory in a modest 13.21 seconds still delighted everyone connected with the Games.

In the official press conference after his latest success, the 22-year-old "Shanghai Express" spoke of his satisfaction, his exhaustion and his future.

"This is my third visit to Macau, and it's not easy for a Special Administrative Region to host such a grand event," said the Athens Olympic champion.

"They have invested a lot to stage this event, and China assigned so many top athletes to come here and show their support.

"For me I feel like it's coming home, because we are all Chinese and the people are so friendly and enthusiastic.

"It's important to let people know more about athletics and let them appreciate sports."

The biggest threat to Liu was his Chinese team-mate Shi Dongpeng, who was too quick out of the blocks at the first attempt to start the race.

But Liu was unruffled by the false start, and even smiled about it before taking up his position again.

His performance was as graceful, if not quite as powerful, as ever, as he cleared the hurdles with his majestic technique. A quick glance to his left to see that Shi was firmly in his place, and then the exertion gave way to a broad smile over the finish line.

His time of 13.21 was nowhere near the time he recorded in winning gold in Athens - 12.91 to tie Colin Jackson's world record - but it broke his own East Asian Games record of 13.42 set in 2001.

Shi was second in 13.36, and Japan's Kota Kumamoto set a personal best of 13.89 to take bronze.

Liu admitted he was "exhausted" after the race, as he had not been training much since the National Games in Nanjing, but he was still content with his performance.

"I couldn't relax because Shi is very powerful, but I know what I have to do to win a race, so I am satisfied," he said.

"After the Olympics I have been using 2005 to make adjustments, and I never expected to compete in so many competitions.

"I feel my level is stable, even though I haven't been able to go under 13 seconds, and I've stayed in the top three at the big international meets."

The East Asian Games, like China itself, owes a big "thank you" to Liu Xiang - and he can count on Macau's support in his bid to retain his Olympic title in Beijing.

http://www.east-asian-games2005.com/img_upload/new_photo/1130915627.jpg

MACAU: China's biggest track star Liu Xiang says he's tired after a busy year. Luckily for him, he didn't need to go full throttle to win his last race of 2005, clocking 13.21 Wednesday to win the 110-meter hurdles at the East Asian Games, 0.30 seconds behind his world record time of 12.91 set when he won gold at the Athens Olympics last year.

Liu's closest competitor was compatriot Shi Dongpeng, who finished in 13.36. Japanese Kota Kumamoto took bronze with a personal best of 13.89.

Liu said he just did enough to win - a common tactic of Chinese athletes at the Macau games, where they are clearly the standouts amid a field lacking sports giants.

"I was very composed psychologically. I knew how I should run the race, how fast I should run - all I had to do was run solidly and win the race,'' he said. But he added he "couldn't be loose'' because of the threat of Shi.

Shi appeared eager to upstage Liu, under whose shadow he has competed, bursting first out of the blocks prematurely.

By contrast, Liu was relaxed.

While others returned to the blocks after the false start, he lingered in the background.

Liu's Macau finish came after a 13.10-second win at the recent Chinese national games in Nanjing.

His best time of the year came in July, when he ran 13.05 in Lausanne, Switzerland at the Athletissima Grand Prix.

The hurdler said this year was supposed to be an adjustment period after his Athens win in 2004, but he ended up entering more competitions than expected.

"I feel quite exhausted physically and mentally,'' he said.

He said he was satisfied with his performance in 2005, noting he mostly won his races in Asian and Chinese competitions and didn't finish outside the top three in international contests.

"My results were very consistent. Even though I didn't break 13 seconds, every result shows that my training is very methodical,'' he said.

Liu said he hopes to rest more next year, with his main focus on the Asian Games in Doha.

But he plans to compete in major races like the World Cup and world indoor championships. Liu has become one of the world's most famous Chinese faces since his Athens win.

For Wednesday's race, the Macau Stadium was more crowded than usual at these games, with hundreds turning out to see Liu.

Liu's win maintained China's dominance in this track and field competition.

The Chinese won eight of the nine gold medals Tuesday on the opening day of the athletics programme. - AP

HU Kai, "the Flying Spectacles Man" as he is known in China, has set his sights on the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing after winning the men's 100 meters dash at the East Asian Games in Macau yesterday.

Nicknamed for his ever-present glasses prescribed for myopia, or near-sightedness, the student of Beijing's Tsing-hua University came home in 10.40 seconds, well outside his personal best of 10.27.

Japanese Shingo Kawabata was second in 10.54, ahead of Chinese Taipei's Wang Shih-wen in 10.63. "I felt good about the victory but the time was not good because I have just competed in the National Games," said Hu.

Hu was injured in the 100m semifinals at last month's National Games but hung on for a silver medal.
Yesterday's race was stalled by two false starts, which helped Hu. "The false starts did good to me because it enabled me to find my rhythm out of the blocks," said Hu.

The 23-year-old Hu rose to fame on his international debut at the World University Games in Izmir, Turkey, in August, when he clocked 10.30 to win the 100m.

Born in the eastern port city of Qingdao in Shandong Province, Hu only began running five years ago as a high school senior and had never competed before attending Tsinghua's economic management school.

Hu said two people influenced him the most — his father, a keen sports fan who could run the 100m in a little over 11 seconds, and his first coach Zhang Hengquan.

Zhang picked him from a high school high jump team and improved his 100m time from 11.3 seconds to 10.30 in 10 months. The coach died of illness in June when Hu was preparing for the Universiade.

"I didn't attend my coach's funeral because I was preparing for the university games," Hu said. "That gold medal was dedicated to my coach."

In 2001, Hu was told that he would attend Tsinghua as an athlete-student if he totaled 200 points in the national university entrance exams, compared to 540 points for an ordinary student. But Hu scored 582 points.

Xinhua

The colossus might of China in gymnastics was on show again in Macao yesterday as they finished one-two in both men's and women's all-round finals.

Zhang Nan and Fan Ye swept the women's event with 37.974 and 34.949 points, while Feng Jing and Lu Bo dominated the men's show with 57.611 and 56.886 points.

China have brought a lot of young gymnasts to Macao to prepare for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

They are even willing to sacrifice some of their champions in order to guarantee a dazzling show before the a patriotic and increasingly sports-crazy home crowd. Such is their dominance in the sport that even their new-look team was too good for the rest of East Asia.

China have taken all four golds offered so far, with the keenly awaited China-Japan contest nowhere in sight.

China have shrugged off their humiliating memory of the Athens Olympics, when they finished a poor fifth in the men's and a humiliating seventh in the women's events, with only a gold and a bronze.

"I'm very confident now and I can feel the power inside me," said Zhang, the all-round bronze medallist in Athens and the floor winner at the just concluded National Games.

The experienced Chinese girls had to overcome a slow start in Macao as they were placed third, fourth and the sixth at the first rotation.

Fan, the all-round gold medallist at the World Championships and the National Games, broke ground to take the lead after jumping off the uneven bar.

Zhang then raced to the top of the 18-player standings with excellent performances on the bars, before giving a flawless floor show that earned the 47th gold for China.

Oshima Kyoko took the bronze and another Chinese, Pang Panpan, had to settle for the fourth place because of a modest uneven bar performance in the second rotation.

Chinese athletes will compete today in 10 individual disciplines, including floor, pommel horse, vault, rings, uneven bars, beam, parallel bars and horizontal bars.

Asian champion China eased past Mongolia 81-54 to remain unbeaten in the men's basketball tournament of the East Asian Games on Tuesday in Macao.

China, who claimed its fourth straight victory, tops the standings of the preliminary round, followed by Chinese Taipei with three wins and a loss. Both South Korea and Japan had one game to go before vying for the third place.

The 2.04m guard Sun Yue had a team high 16 points and six assists to lead the Asian powerhouse to its fourth straight victory in the round-robin preliminaries.

Eight Chinese played more than 10 minutes as both the 2.12m center Yi Jianlian, dubbed "little Yao Ming" in China, and the team's top scorer Wang Shipeng were kept on bench after the first quarter.

"Our rivals are not strong today," said China coach Min Lulei. "Wang and Yi are very tired as both of them were just back from the National Games."

"That's why I kept them on the bench. Meanwhile I wanted to have more players on court," said Min.

Forward Tsetsegee Mergen led underdog Mongolia, who lost all the past three matches, with 25 points, and center Bator Tserenjanhor added 12.

South Korea crushed Hong Kong 104-54 with solid defence, which limited the rivals shot percentage under 25 percent, while Chinese Taipei outplayed Macao 120-78.

Source: Xinhua

Former Olympic champion Wang Liping announced her retirement on Wednesday after winning the women's 20km race walking gold medal at the East Asian Games.

"It might be my last race, and I will retire after the games," said the 29-year-old.

Wang, the Sydney Olympic gold medalist, clocked the fastest time of 1 hour 34 minutes 31 seconds, just half a minute ahead of runner-up Kim Mijeong of South Korea.

"I feel exhausted after the Chinese National Games, and I was not in good form today," said Wang, the mother of a three-year-old girl.

"It was a grueling race, but I am happy I survived," she added. Enditem

MACAO, Nov. 2 (Xinhuanet) -- Chinese Shan Hong won the East Asian Games' first shooting gold medal as she scored 594 points to win the women's 50m rifle prone Wednesday morning.

"I am satisfied with my performance," said Shan.

"It is a happy ending to my 23-year-long shooting career as I prepare to call its quits," said Shan, who started as a shooter at 15.

Chinese Xiong Meili finished second with 590 points while Japanese Ako Sasaki and South Korean Yi Sang-soon placed joint third with 587 points. Enditem

It's not easy being a Muslim during Ramadan, the month of fasting in daylight hours.

And it's even more difficult being a sportsman during this period, especially when your team has a vital match in the last couple of hours before the daily fast can be broken.

So spare a thought for Hong Kong hockey player Arif Ali and six of his team-mates, who went down 5-4 to Chinese Taipei at the Macau Hockey Centre on Wednesday afternoon.

In a crucial preliminary round game, the winner of which would be the favourite to clinch a place in the play-off for the bronze medal, Hong Kong led 2-1 at the interval, but faded late on and slipped to their second defeat in three outings. Chinese Taipei improved their win-loss record to 2-1.

"In the second half we were a little bit¡Kphysically not strong enough, and gave away some soft goals," said Arif, one of three brothers in the Hong Kong team.

One of the reasons was surely the fasting, as they had not eaten since 4.30 in the morning, and could not eat again until 6 in the evening.

"From 4 o'clock in the afternoon until 6 is the most tiring time, and our most important match started at 4. This is the worst time," said Arif.

With Korea looking certain to reach the final, Japan and China will be fighting to join them, while Hong Kong now look like missing out on playing for the bronze after this narrow defeat to Chinese Taipei.

Chinese Taipei manager Tsai Yi Ming said his team had been poor in the first half, but improved their running and technique in the second.

"I told my players at half-time that they had a big problem, and they changed everything in the second half," said Tsai.

China's biggest threat in men's basketball is clearly going to be Chinese Taipei.

Although China have already beaten Chinese Taipei 68-65, Chinese Taipei's win-loss record now stands at an impressive 4-1 after Wednesday's 89-78 victory over Japan at Tap Seac Multisport Pavilion.

Yang Yuming led the Chinese Taipei offence with a team-high 24 points, and was not surprised by his team's victory.

"We beat them once last year and this gave us confidence for this game, so we thought we could win again," said Yang. "We have a very strong team."

After the seven teams have played a round-robin competition, the top four will advance to the semi-finals.

Kim Jong Su of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea fired a warning to China's awesome shooting team by winning the men's 10-metre air pistol final on Wednesday.

In a close contest, Kim edged out Chang Yining of Chinese Taipei to take the gold medal. Kim Sung Su of Korea won the bronze.

The gold medal-winning Kim is entered in three more events over the next four days, when 11 more titles will be at stake, and will be aiming to take more gold back to Pyongyang.

China won the other two gold on the opening day of action at the Macau International Shooting Range.

Zhang Penghui took the men's 25-metre rapid fire pistol, and Shan Hong the women's 50-metre rifle prone.

Zhang said he had challenged himself to win the 25-metre rapid fire pistol title.

"I made up my mind to get the gold medal before I came to Macau, and that is why I was under great pressure," he said.

"Macau is a very nice place and the shooting range is excellent."

Shan, a veteran at 38 years old, said she had been competing in her event for more than 20 years.

"I was extremely nervous at the start, but finally I found the right track and felt relaxed," she said.

China improved their win-loss record in women's basketball to 3-1 by seeing off DPR Korea 85-75 at Tap Seac Multisport Pavilion on Wednesday.

China, humbled 79-56 by Chinese Taipei in an earlier round, got 17 points from Zhang Fan to prevent another shock.

China's coach, Li Yaguang, said his players were too casual at the beginning because they enjoyed a big height advantage over the Koreans.

"The DPR Korea team was strong at shooting from distance, so the China team had to prevent them from shooting from outside the three-point zone," he said.

"However, China underestimated the speed and accuracy of the Korean shooting.

"After the break we had to change our strategy and keep the ball in hand and slow down their attacks. This change enabled us to finally win the game," added Li.

DPR Korea slipped to 0-3 in the five-team championship.

Macau's East Asian Games success story scaled a new peak on Wednesday when the host city won its first gold medal in an Olympic Games sport.

After winning three dragon boat gold and four in wushu, 19-year-old Xu Wei won a gold in the men's pommel horse of the gymnastics competition at Macau East Asian Games Dome.

His score of 9.800 was the same as China's Xiao Qin, who also won a gold medal. Chinese Taipei's Huang Chekuei took the bronze with a mark of 9.662.

After becoming Macau's eighth gold medal winner of the fourth East Asian Games, Xu said: "Firstly I would like to thank the people of Macau for all their support, and also my coach for believing in me and in my qualities.

"This first gold medal will give me a lot of confidence, and to win it at the East Asian Games hosted by Macau is a great honour.

"I will increase my training and my determination for future international competitions."

In a competition dominated by China, Chinese Taipei also won their first gold when Lin Yunghsi scored 9.700 in the men's rings, the same as China's Lu Bo. Yang Tae Young of Korea and Ro Chol Jin of DPR Korea each won a bronze with 9.600.

Lu said: "I was very nervous and eager to finish the exercise in the time limit. I guess it was more good luck."

Japan's women and Chinese Taipei's men dominated the soft tennis competition, which ended Wednesday at the Tennis Academy.

Japan won all three gold medals at stake in the women's competition - team, doubles and singles - and Chinese Taipei repeated the feat in the three men's events.

Harumi Gyokusen claimed the women's singles gold by beating Kim Ji Eun of Korea 4-3. Kanako Kono won the bronze for Japan, beating Chang Shufen of Chinese Taipei 4-0.

The men's doubles final was an all-Chinese Taipei affair, with Wang Chunyen and Fang Tunghsien beating Li Chiahung and Yang Shengfa 5-4 after trailing 3-1 and 4-2.

Wang said the match had been played in a fair and open spirit, and that they had won through superior ability.

Japan finished with eight medals, and Chinese Taipei and Korea with five each.

Korea took advantage of the lack of a Chinese entry to record a 1-2 finish in the men's 94 kg class of the weightlifting competition at Macau Stadium Pavilion on Wednesday.

Lee Ung Jo, who gave an extravagant salute on approaching the podium before his lift, compiled a total of 360 kg. His best in the snatch was 160 kg, and in the clean and jerk 200.

Compatriot Kim Chul Min won the silver with 340, followed by Japan's Akihiro Sato with 325.

"This is my first medal, and it's good for the honour of Korea," said Lee.

"I was feeling some stress during the competition because my rivals are strong, so I am pleased with my performance."

China won the other gold on offer on the fourth day of the five-day competition, as Cao Lei set a Games record in the women's 69 kg division with a total of 248.

The previous best was 242.5, set by Chinese Taipei's Shang Shunhun in 2001, but Cao passed it with 245 and finally 248, thanks to her new Games record lift of 113 kg in the snatch.

"I was feeling a little nervous in the clean and jerk, but overall I am very satisfied," said Cao, who revealed that she will take a break from competition after the East Asian Games.

"But it is the goal of every Chinese athlete to take part in the Beijing Olympics, and I will try my best to be there," she said.

China have won 10 of the 11 weightlifting gold so far, with Korea taking the other. There will be four more to close the competition on Thursday.

Even in the friendly setting of the East Asian Games, a football match between Japan and Korea will always have a special edge.

Wednesday night's Group A clash at Macau Stadium was no exception, as Japan produced two second-half goals to win 2-0 and finish on top of the three-team standings.

Both teams had already booked a place in the semi-finals by beating Chinese Taipei, and Japan will now face the runner-up from Group B, while Korea will play the Group B winner in the last four.

Japan's coach, Masahiro Inui, said the first half was all about containing the opposition and saving their energy and aggression for the second period.

"We scored two goals in the second half thanks to the understanding between the players," said Inui.

"We believe that the next opponent will be China, and we'll have to be very careful in that match. We have set our sights on nothing less than the gold medal, and feel that our tournament has just started because of this hard game against Korea.

"It was tough to win and we gained a lot of experience through this match."

Japan's scorers were Rui Komatsu, who bagged two in the 6-1 defeat of Chinese Taipei on Saturday, and Shingo Akamine, who took his tournament tally to two.

Olympic champion Luo Xuejuan led China to a 6-3 advantage over great rival Japan on the opening night of the swimming competition on Wednesday.

The 2004 Athens 100-metre breaststroke golden girl won the 50-metre race at Macau Olympic Aquatic Centre in a new Games record of 31.67 seconds.

Japan's Sayaka Nakamura won the silver in 32.67, and Hong Kong's Suen Ka Yi took the bronze in 33.45. Aged just 17, Suen idolizes Luo, and hopes to emulate her sparkling career.

Luo said she could afford to enjoy her swim, as there was not the same kind of pressure on her as there had been at the National Games in Nanjing last month.

"I have been practising in the pool for a few days, so it felt good to get out there and race," she said.

The 21-year-old champion will try to end the meet with a 50 and 100-metre breaststroke double.

China won six gold medals on the opening night of the swimming, and Japan claimed three, despite lacking Athens Olympic champions Kosuke Kitajima and Ai Shibata.

Japan even won two gold medals in the same race, when Aya Terakawa and Takami Igarashi dead-heated in the women's 200-metre backstroke in 2:12.15. Hence the fact there were nine gold medals instead of the scheduled eight on day one, and only seven silver.

Overall, China have 74 gold, 27 silver and 10 bronze for 111 medals at close of play on the fifth day. Japan have moved into second place with 10-23-40 for 73, ahead of Korea with 9-21-19 for 49.

Host Macau is fourth with eight gold medals, 12 silver and seven bronze for 27, after gymnast Xu Wie won gold in the men's pommel horse.

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MACAU: Just as Japan’s swimmers maneuvered to challenge China’s domination of the East Asian Games, Zhang Lin eclipsed the Asian 1,500 freestyle record by nine seconds Wednesday to help quell the threat.

Zhang won in 15 minutes, 00.27 seconds, overhauling South Korea’s Park Tae-hwan by 0.05 over the final strokes in a sprint finish. “I feel this is the best I’ve ever swum, and I’m very happy with the result,” said Zhang. And justifiably so, it erased 10 seconds from his previous best.

Olympic 110-metre hurdles champion Liu Xiang started China’s gold medal rush Wednesday, capped a season stacked heavily with competitive and promotional commitments by winning his favoured event in 13.21 seconds. Now he wants to take a breather and reflect on the year he’s had since shooting to fame in China with his world record-equaling Olympic win at Athens.

Liu says he’s “mentally and physically exhausted” after a taxing year. He’ll be back to work quickly, though, with his sights on defending his Olympic title at home in 2008. China had 72 gold medals after 104 events, adding 24 Wednesday with three results still incomplete. That includes 18 of 24 in athletics and six of nine in the swimming pool. Japan was the biggest mover Wednesday, climbing from fourth to second place with 10 gold medals and 68 overall.

But it took Japan and South Korea (8 gold and 47 overall) until the fifth day to overhaul Macau on the medal standings in this tiny gambling enclave. Macau, which had a solitary gold medal from three previous East Asian Games, shared a gymnastics gold medal with China to lift its haul to eight. The hosts had 27 medals in total. Chinese women set two games records and equaled another in the swimming.

Olympic 100-metre breaststroke champion Luo Xuejuan won the 50 breaststroke in 31.67 seconds and Pang Jiaying won the 100 freestyle in 54.65. Li Jie’s 2:10.26 in the 200 butterfly equaled the record set four years ago. Japan had three gold after four swimming finals – including two in the tied women’s 200 backstroke between Takami Igarashi and Aya Terakawa – before China regained control in the pool.

Japan also had four gold in athletics – including Wednesday’s wins from Shinji Takahira in the 200, Koike Takayuki in the 400 hurdles and Kumiko Ikeda in the women’s long jump. In the wake of Tuesday’s agreement between North and South Korea to try and form a single team for the 2006 Asian Games and the 2008 Olympics, athletes from the both Koreas prospered in Macau. For the South, Kim Kun-woo won the decathlon with 7,754 points and Lee Jae-hun took the 800 metres in 1:48.60.

North Korea added three gold medals – including two in gymnastics – from Ri Jong Song in men’s floor exercise and Kang Yun Mi at the women’s vault, and shooter Kim Jong Su in the men’s 10-metre air pistol. There were two ties for gold medals in gymnastics, putting China in the delicate position of sharing the top podium place with Taiwan when Lu Bo and Taiwan’s Lin Yung-hsi both were awarded gold in the rings. Likewise, China’s Xiao Qin tied with Macau’s Xu Wei on the pommel horse, with the duo each scoring 9.800.

Taiwan and North Korea had four gold medals apiece after 104 events. Hong Kong had one gold and seven medals overall, Mongolia had five bronze and Guam was yet to register a medal. Liu wasn’t the only Chinese athlete to admit fatigue. Wang Liping, the Sydney 2000 Olympic champion, won the women’s 20-kilometre walk and said it was most likely her last international appearance.

“It might be my last race, and I will retire after the games,” she said. She finished in 1 hour, 34 minutes and 31 seconds and said she was out of energy. “I feel exhausted. It was a grueling race, but I am happy I survived,” she told reporters. Yi Jianjian, an NBA prospect in Yao Ming’s shadow, is having a big impact in Macau, leading China to 5-0 in the basketball preliminaries. Yi led the scoring with 25 points and had 15 rebounds in the 78-67 win over South Korea.

In other men’s prelims, Mongolia beat Macau 76-56 and Taiwan accounted for Japan 89-78. China clinched its 10th weightlifting title when Cao Li lifted a combined 248 kilograms to win the women’s 69-kilogram division. The Chinese gave up chasing a weightlifting sweep by not entering in the men’s 94 kg. South Korea’s Lee Ung-jo won that class from compatriot Kim Chul-min. The Games continues Thursday with 40 gold medals at stake. ap

Hu Kai and Qin Wangping won the men's and women's 100-meter titles and six other athletes clinched gold as China got off to a roaring start on day one of track and field competition at the East Asian Games.

After two false starts Tuesday, the bespectacled Hu -- dubbed "The Flying Spectacles Man" after his win at the World University Games in August -- surged ahead of the field, clocking 10.40 seconds.

In the women's sprint, Qin and compatriot Shu Yan broke away from the pack for a Chinese gold-silver sweep. Japan's Ayumi Suzuki was nearly 0.20 seconds behind Shu.

The men's competition was more tightly contested. Japan's Shingo Kawabata took silver with a time of 10.54. Taiwanese Wang Shih-wen finished in 10.63 for bronze.

Hu, 23, said he peaked during China's recent national games, in which he won silver, and wasn't fully prepared for Macau.

"I'm happy enough that I won," Hu told reporters. He said the false starts helped him get settled. "What happened gave me room to adjust."

Meanwhile, 23-year-old Qin rated her performance as only "OK." She said she felt pressure because she didn't compete in heats.

"If there were heats I could have adjusted my rhythm. Since there was only one race, I just did my best," she said.

Not needing their best to win has been a theme for Chinese athletes in general at these games. The Chinese are often in a class of their own among a relatively weak nine-nation field that includes smaller territories like Hong Kong and Macau.

But the Chinese are competing in Macau as part of a buildup to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. The recent national games in Nanjing was the first stage, Macau is the second, and the next is the 2006 Asian Games in Doha.

China's biggest track star, Olympic 110-meter hurdles champion Liu Xiang, is racing Wednesday.

In other Chinese triumphs, Wu Tao won the discus throw, Bao Guiying prevailed in the 10,000 meters, Jing Xuezhu took the high jump title and Li Meiju was the top shot putter.

Bao's time of 32 minutes, 35.07 seconds was well slower than her personal best, and more than three minutes behind the world record held by her compatriot Wang Junxia.

But that was enough to stave off Japan's Hiromi Ominami (3206.62), the only runner who kept up with her. North Korea's Paek Hyan Gok was third in 3403.06.

Bao said she wasn't happy with her time, despite the relative ease of her win.

"For me, the result isn't too satisfactory," she said.

Shot putter Li's winning 18.12-meter throw came on the first of her five attempts. Japan's Yoko Toyonaga was second with a personal best of 16.89.

High jumper Jing was perfect up to 1.85 meters but failed to clear 1.90 three times. But she still edged compatriot Zheng Xingjuan on a countback and Japan's Mai Yonezu was third.

There were other Chinese 1-2 finishes in men's women's hammer throw and triple jump.

Huang Qiuyan won the triple jump with 14.08, clear of Xie Limei (13.65) and South Korea's Kim Su-youn (13.36).

Zhang Wenxiu won the hammer with a best attempt of 72.23, beating compatriot Liu Yinghui (69.20) and Japan's Yuka Murofushi (63.67).

Japan's Yuki Nakamura narrowly won the men's 10,000-meter race, in which only three athletes ran. Nakamura clocked 3109.69, just a hair ahead of South Korean Lee Du-haeng, who finished in 3109.72.

Forty-five gold medals are up for grabs in athletics at the East Asian Games.

MACAU (AP) - Hoping to trademark a gymnastics manoeuvre, China's Cheng Fei tried a complex new move for the first time in the women's vault at the East Asian Games on Wednesday and it cost her a gold medal.

Cheng fell during landing and ended up placing second. She hopes to name the new move, a backward 180-degree flip and forward 540-degree flip, after herself, but said the naming requires a successful attempt at competition.

Cheng sounded bitterly disappointed by her mistake.

"Today everyone could see the move obviously failed," she told reporters.

But she said the East Asian Games were considered a trial run for the manoeuvre ahead of the world championships in Melbourne, Australia, later this month.

The move was originally slated to debut at the world championships.

"After practising it, whether successfully or not, it's still a very good foundation," Cheng said. "At the next competition this move will be the focus."

Cheng scored 9.256, behind gold medallist Kang Yun Mi of North Korea with 9.306.

Rank Country Gold Silver Bronze Total
1 China 74 27 10 111
2 Japan 10 23 40 73
3 South Korea 9 21 19 49
4 Macau 8 12 7 27
5 Chinese Taipei 4 15 18 37
6 North Korea 4 6 12 22
7 Hong Kong 1 1 4 6
8 Mongolia 0 0 5 5
9 Guam 0 0 0 0

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Chinese Taipei completed the women's basketball round-robin competition with a perfect 4-0 win-loss record at Tap Seac Multisport Pavilion on Thursday.

Chinese Taipei defeated Korea 63-58 to finish on top of the five-team pool and install themselves as favourites to win the gold medal.

China (3-1) were second, followed by Japan (2-2) and Korea (1-3). DPR Korea (0-4) were eliminated in fifth position.

Chinese Taipei's head coach, Lin Hung Ling-Yao, said: "The Koreans were better around the boards than us, but I am still confident Chinese Taipei will win the gold medal."

In the semi-finals they meet Korea, while China will face Japan.

Earlier in the day, Japan had beaten DPR Korea 92-55.

True to their word, the Japanese began making inroads into China's lead at the top of the medals table by taking all four athletics golds on Thursday morning.

The Japanese are a world power in the marathon, having won the last two Olympic titles in the women's race through Naoko Takahashi in Sydney and Mizuki Noguchi in Athens.

With the half marathon only to challenge for here, Japan came through again with Yoshiko Ichikawa beating Korea's Lim Kyung Hee by just 0.03 seconds.

Ichikawa crossed the line at Macau Stadium in 1:16.31, followed by Lim in 1:16.33. Jong Yong Ok of DPR Korea took the bronze in 1:18.48.

Toshinari Fujimoto won the men's half marathon in another close finish, holding off the Korean pair of Huh Jang Kyu and Eom Hyo Seok.

Japan also holds the Olympic men's hammer title through Koji Murofushi, but in his absence Hiroaki Doi won gold with a throw of 70.35, well down on Murofushi's Games record of 79.68 set in 2001.

Japan also won the men's 3,000-metre steeplechase with a comfortable victory for Yoshitaka Iwamizu, five seconds ahead of compatriot and Games record holder Yasunori Uchitomi.

With a powerful serve and blistering back-hand, Chan Yungjan won an all-Chinese Taipei women's singles tennis final against Chan Chinwei at the Tennis Academy on Thursday morning.

The 16-year-old Chan beat her 20-year-old opponent 6-2, 6-1 in a match played under a fierce sun and in a gentle breeze.

Although Chan Chinwei needed two lengthy breaks in the second set for treatment on a lower back muscle problem, the injury only delayed the younger Chan's march to the gold medal.
Asked if the disruptions had affected her concentration, Chan Yungjan replied: "It's normal. I did not think about it, I just played my own game."

The medals were presented by Wayne Pai, Vice President of the Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee and the delegation's Chef de Mission in Macau.

"I feel very proud to have two players in the women's singles final, and also because we won three gold medals in soft tennis," he said.

"Tennis is very popular back home. Many schools and students play tennis. There is a good environment for it."

MACAU -- Japan stormed back in track and field, shaking China's dominance by winning four straight golds Thursday at the East Asia Games in Macau.

Doi Hiroaki started the flurry of Japanese gold in the men's hammer throw, winning with a 70.35 meter toss -- 3.95 meters farther than silver medalist Lee Yoon-chul from South Korea. Macau's Hou Fei placed third with a 37.14 meter throw.

Japan took gold and silver in the men's 3,000 meter steeplechase, with Iwamizu Yoshitaka winning in 8 minutes and 40.16 seconds. Uchitomi Yasunori -- who set the games record of 8:33.98 in Osaka in 2001 -- got the silver with 8:45.47. Taiwan's Wu Wen-chien won bronze in 8:50.41.

The men's half marathon was a duel between Japan's Fujimoto Toshinari, who won in 1:08.14, and South Korea's Huh Jang-kyu, who crossed the line 21 seconds later. Eom Hyo-seok of South Korea finished in 1:08.38 for bronze.

Japan and South Korea also battled it out in the women's half marathon, with Japanese runner Ichikawa Yoshiko winning in 1:16.31, just two seconds faster than Kim Kyung-hee. North Korea's Jong Yong Ok won the bronze in 1:18.48.

Despite Japan's string of medals Thursday, China still dominated track and field events, which end Saturday. So far, China has won 18 of the 28 gold medals up for grabs in athletics, while Japan has eight. There's another 12 finals on the program.

Later Thursday, medals will be contested in the men's long jump, pole vault, javelin, 400 meters, 4x100-meter relay and 1,500 meters. The women will compete in the 400 meters, 4x100 relay and 1,500 meters. (AP)

November 3, 2005

A gold medal tie in gymnastics at the East Asian Games left China in the awkward position Wednesday of sharing the spotlight with Taiwan, a separately ruled island that Beijing claims as its territory.

China's Lu Bo and Taiwan's Lin Yung-hsi tied at the men's rings, with 9.700 points each. Both were awarded gold.

China and Taiwan split after the ruling Nationalist Party retreated from mainland China to Taiwan amid civil war against the communists in 1949. The two sides have been ruled separately since.

Opinion polls in Taiwan show only a small percentage of locals want to unify with the mainland immediately. Some want to declare independence.

But China claims Taiwan is Chinese territory and has threatened to retake it by force. It tries to restrict Taiwan's moves toward formal nationhood. For example, in international sporting events, Taiwan enters as Chinese Taipei, and it can only use its Olympic committee flag and play the committee's official song, instead of Taiwan's national flag and anthem.

On Wednesday, organizers played China's national anthem first, then Taiwan's Olympic committee song -- an order they said was decided by alphabetical order. The Taiwanese contingent didn't seem upset.

"It's nothing special. It's just order. It doesn't matter. They're both gold medals," Taiwanese gymnastics coach Yu Chih-ying said. "I'm equally happy for two brother countries winning gold." Gold medalist Lin also said he wasn't bothered by China's anthem being played first.

MACAU: China challenged Japan's dominance in the swimming pool in record-breaking style yesterday while star hurdler Liu Xiang enthralled the crowds at the East Asian Games.

China, which have traditionally trailed in Japan's wake in swimming events, won six of the Games' opening eight races with Zhang Lin shattering the Asian men's 1,500m freestyle record by nine seconds.

Two-time world champion Luo Xuejuan cruised to victory in the women's 50m breaststroke, touching home in a Games-record 31.67 seconds ahead of Japan's Sayaka Nakamura.

Li Jie also held off Olympic bronze medallist Yuko Nakanishi in a close finish to the women's 200m butterfly.

Other triumphs for China included Zeng Qiliang's victory in the men's 100m breaststroke ahead of Japan's Genki Imamura.

Pang Jia-ying led a Chinese one-two in the women's 100m freestyle and China also took the men's 4x200 medley in 7:22.83 from South Korea.

But Zhang's enthralling duel with Park was the race of the night.

The two were neck-and-neck for most of the way and it came down to a matter of centimetres when Zhang touched home in 15:00.27, beating Takeshi Matsuda's previous mark of 15:09.52.

For Japan, Aya Terakawa and Takami Igarashi shared gold with an identical 2:12.15 in the women's 200m backstroke and Yuta Shoji beat team-mate Hidemasa Sano in the men's 200m individual medley.

Japan, who like China are concentrating on grooming younger athletes here, left most of its top swimmers at home with Nakanishi an exception.

Earlier, Olympic hero Liu added his name to the long list of Chinese gold-medallists with a comfortable victory in the men's 110m hurdles.

Liu, who shot to stardom after equalling Colin Jackson's 1993 world record of 12.91 to win the Athens final, scarcely looked under pressure as he cleared all the hurdles before easing up to clock 13.21.

Hermit state North Korea, returning to the Games after a self-imposed 12-year exile, enjoyed a breakthrough day when they added three golds to their tally.

Kim Yong-su triggered the haul by winning the men's 10m air pistol, before gymnast Ri Jong-song's triumph in the men's floor exercise.

Kang Yun-mi won the women's vault to take North Korea to four golds, within sight of the 10 titles it won in Shanghai 1993 before skipping the tournaments in South Korea and Japan.

Japan will take solace for their swimming disappointment from their exploits on track and field, where they enjoyed their most successful day so far.

Shinji Takahira led the men's 200m from the start to win convincingly from China's Yang Yaozu. Kumiko Ikeda also took the women's long jump before Koike Takayuki won a farcical three-man 400m hurdles, where each competitor was guaranteed a medal.

China have run away with the tournament so far, bagging 74 of the 109 gold medals available. Japan are second in the medals table with 10 while South Korea have eight. – AFP

MACAU -- Japan was hoping to make up some ground on China as the swimming event at the East Asian Games began Wednesday. Unfortunately for Japan, China's swimmers had their own statement to make.

Zhang Lin smashed the Asian record by nine seconds to win the men's 1,500 meters, capturing one of six gold medals won by China on the opening night of swimming.

Zhang won the 1,500 in 15 minutes, 00.27 seconds, overhauling South Korea's Park Tae-hwan by 0.05 on the final strokes of a sprint finish after 30 laps of the pool.

Japan's Takeshi Matsuda was almost 38 seconds back in third place.

"I didn't feel any pressure from the Korean swimmer," said Zhang. "I was sick after the national games, so I really wanted to turn things around here with a good performance.

"I feel this is the best I've ever swum, and I'm very happy with the result." The result wiped almost 10 seconds off Zhang's personal best. Park took almost 20 seconds off his PB and had to settle for silver.

Japan got off to a good start, winning three gold after four finals -- including two in one race -- but didn't add another win to that.

Takami Igarashi surged after Aya Terakawa in the last 20 meters and the pair touched together in the women's 200 backstroke -- tied at 2:12.15.

Terakawa said she hadn't competed since the University Games in Turkey and wasn't sure how to approach the race. In the end, her idea of going out hard paid off.

"That was the first time that I've finished in a tie like that -- this is a great way to start the night off for Japan," she said. "Hopefully we can keep it going from here."

Yuta Shoji led Hidemasa Sano in a Japanese 1-2 finish in the men's 200 individual medley, finishing in 2:02.56 in his only race here. South Korea's Han Kyu-chul finished third.

"I was pleased with the way I performed -- I really wanted to do well for Japan," he said.

But just when it appeared Japan had gained some momentum, China started dominating again.

Chinese women set two games records and equaled another.

Olympic 100-meter breaststroke champion Luo Xuejuan won the 50 breaststroke in 31.67 seconds and Pang Jiaying's 54.65 in the 100 freestyle shaved 1/3 of a second off compatriot Xu Yanwei's old mark.

"I wasn't thinking about Japan at all," said Luo. "I just tried to stay focused on my swimming and was happy to contribute to a great night for China."

Pang gave China its second gold of the night.

"I'm thrilled that I broke the record -- I never thought I'd be able to do it," said Pang. "I'm equally thrilled to win the gold medal -- I've waited a long time for this."

Zeng Qiliang was among China's other winners, clinching the men's 100 breaststroke in 1:02.34 from Japanese pair Genki Imamura and Daisuke Kimura.

Li Jie's 2:10.26 in the 200 butterfly equaled the record set four years ago and China capped the evening by winning the men's 4x200 freestyle relay in 7:22.83. South Korea was second followed by Japan.

China ended the first night of swimming with six gold, one silver and two bronze medals. The Asian powerhouse had 74 gold medals after 106 events, compared with 10 for Japan. (AP)

November 2, 2005

MACAU -- Chinese world-record holder Liu Xiang helped lead a medal romp Tuesday with China grabbing 10 of the 15 golds on the second day of track and field events at the East Asia Games in Macau.

Liu won the 110-meter hurdles -- his last hurdles race of the year -- in 13.21, 0.30 second behind his world record time of 12.91 set in the 2004 Athens Games.

"I was very composed psychologically. I knew how I should run the race," Liu said.

His compatriot Shi Dongpeng won silver, crossing in 13.36, while Japan's Kumamoto Kota finished in 13.89 for bronze.

Chinese women burned up the track, winning both gold and silver in the 400-meter hurdles and the 800.

Liu Qing led a pack of three runners on the first lap of the 800-meter race, but she pulled away after the bell, finishing in 2 minutes and 0.11 second. Yang Wei placed second in 2:04.57, while Japan's Jinnouchi Ayako won bronze with 2:05.45.

"I was feeling pretty good in this competition," Liu Qing said. "I thought I'd be a little tired after our national games but my strength was OK today."

China struck with another one-two punch in the women's 400-meter hurdles, with Huang Xiaoxiao winning in 55.33 and Wang Xing taking silver in 56.54. Japan's Kubokura Satomi won bronze in 57.38.

In the women's 200 meters, Chen Lisha cruised to gold in 23.78, while Japan's Fujimaki Rina got silver with 24.58. Hong Kong's Wan Kin-yee won bronze with 24.70.

One of China's biggest vulnerabilities was in men's middle-distance events. A Chinese runner didn't make the final for the 800 meters, which Korea's Lee Jae-hun won by striding away on the backstretch of the second lap to finish in 1:48.60. Silver went to Taiwan's Chen Fu-pin, who clocked a 1:49.74, and Japan's Nakano Masaharu won bronze in 1:50.10.

Japan's Takahira Shinji snatched the gold in the men's 200 meters, finishing in 20.88. China's Yang Yaozu won silver in 21.34 and South Korea's Seo Minsuk clocked a 21.42 for bronze.

Japan struck again in the men's 400 meter hurdles, won by Koike Takayuki in 50.85. China's Zhang Shibao finished in 51.04 for silver and Japan's Saito Susumu got bronze in 52.08.

South Korea's Kim Kun-woo won the men's decathlon, and China's Yu Bin got bronze and Taiwan's Hsiao Szu-pin won bronze.

Chinese women dominated the field events, snapping up gold and silver in the pole vault, javelin and discus.

Pole vaulter Zhao Yingying won gold clearing 4.40 meters, while Gao Shuying got silver with 4.30 meters.

Ma Ning threw the javelin 61.95 meters for the women's gold, while compatriot Xue Juan hit the 61.42 meter mark for silver. Bronze went to Japan's Nakano Misa for a 53.37-meter toss.

In the women's discus, Song Aimin won with a 64.32-meter throw, while her teammate Ma Shuli took silver with 60.13 meters.

Other Chinese gold medal winners included Yu Chaohong in the men's 20-kilometer walk and Wang Liping in the same event for women. China's Huang Haiqiang took first in the men's high jump.

Japan's Ikeda Kumiko lept 6.54 meters in the women's long jump for gold, while South Korea's Jung Soo-nok won silver with 6.31.

After two days of track and field, China had 18 of the 24 gold medals awarded. Athletics continues Thursday with 13 finals on the program. (AP)

November 2, 2005

Chinese Taipei's sharp shooter Chang Yi-ning may have edged out China's Zhang Tian to win the silver in the men's 10-metre air pistol final yesterday, but he had mixed feelings after his victory.

The reason: Chang was part of the Qinghai Provincial team before immigrating to Chinese Taipei five years ago.

He has been able to represent Taipei because he was never a member of China's national team.

Taking part in his first East Asian Games, Chang came second with 680.3 points, giving Chinese Taipei their first ever medal in the men's 10m air pistol category.

"I was a bit nervous in the beginning because it was my first competition in the East Asian Games," Chang said later. "I participated in the National Games last month but the East Asian Games are more important for Chinese Taipei," he said. What did he do to calm his nerves? "I just told myself to relax and stay composed."

Placed fourth before the last two shoots, Chang launched a swift comeback with 10.3 and 10.1 rings to beat the National Games runner-up Zhang to the second spot.

"I tried to focus on my shots and not to think about the rankings," Chang said. "It really paid off."

People's Democratic Republic of Korea's (DPRK) Kim Jong-su pocketed the gold with 680.6 and Republic of Korea's (ROK) Kim Sung-su took the bronze. Zhang, who was trapped by his under-par 8.3 rings in the seventh shoot, had to be content with the fourth, and another Chinese Wang Biao came a disappointing sixth.

In the men's 25-metre rapid fire pistol ten minutes later, China's Zhang Penghui claimed the top prize, with ROK's Lee Young-hoon taking the silver and teammate Yang Dongming, the bronze.

Zhang, who finished fourth at the National Games, led the qualification rounds, with a commanding 586 rings, but was placed only third in the final, with 196.5. But thanks to the rules that the eventual result would be a combination of both the qualifying and final rounds, Zhang gold the gold.

"I think my performance was poor today," Zhang said later. "I was under a lot of pressure here and fortunately, I overcame it."

Earlier in the day, China's Shan Hong made an impressive start to win the women's 50-metre rifle prone. She scored 594 out of a possible 600, just three short of the world record set by Russia's Marina Bobkova in 1998, to finish ahead of compatriot Xiong Meili and Japan's Ako Sasaki, who won the bronze.

Shan's scores were 99, 98, 99, 100, 99 and 99. The only other athlete in the 10-strong field to shoot a maximum 100 was ROK's Lee Hyun-jeong, who finished seventh, with 582.

China have sent a 30-strong shooting squad for the 14 gold medals on offer at the Games. The likes of Athens Olympic champions Jia Zhanbo (men's 50m rifle), Zhu Qinan (men's 10m air rifle rapid fire) and Du Li (women's 10m air rifle) are set to compete at Macao Shooting Centre in the coming days.

Source: China Daily

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Just when Macau needed another lift, Yang Houqin gave them exactly that - and won the ninth gold medal for the East Asian Games host city on Thursday.

The 23-year-old Yang lifted 107 in the snatch and 135 in the clean and jerk for a total of 242 kg in the women's 75 kg division of the weightlifting competition at Macau Stadium Pavilion.

China's Zhang Shaoling took the silver and Korea's Kim Soon Hee the bronze.

Yang's performance kept the gold medals coming for Macau, and now they have nine after earlier taking four in wushu, three in dragon boat racing and one in gymnastics.

At the top of the medals table after six of the nine days of competition, China have 87 gold, 36 silver and 19 bronze for a total of 142.

Japan are second with 22-33-53 for 108, and Korea complete the "big three" with 20-30-31 for 81. Macau lead the best of the rest with 9-13-11 for 33. In three previous editions of the East Asian Games, Macau had won just one gold and five bronze medals.

Athletics and swimming will both provide eight of 27 gold medals available on Day Seven.

It's not easy beating the Koreans in the East Asian Games bowling competition.

Just ask the Japanese.

They did it Thursday, but needed to score a whopping 4,004 points to win the men trios ahead of Chinese Taipei and Korea in a competition in which the top five teams all beat the previous East Asian Games record.

"We needed 120 per cent effort to win this one," declared the winning trio of Tomoyuki Sasaki, Yoshinao Masatoki and Toshihiko Takahashi.

"We are playing in Macau so it felt like an away game, but the support of our team-mates really lifted us.

"We'd like to celebrate more, but we have another game tomorrow (Friday) and are thinking about that already."

Japan's win broke Korea's stranglehold on the bowling competition, but the Koreans have still won seven of eight gold medals.

China blitzed Japan in the pool on the second night of swimming finals on Thursday.

China won seven of the eight gold medals on offer, extending their tally to 13 compared to Japan's four, which includes two gold in the same race for a dead heat.

Pride of place Thursday went to Xu Yanwei in the women's 50-metre butterfly and to Zhou Jiawei in the men's 50 ¡¥fly. Both swimmers set new Asian records.

Xu's 26.63 seconds eclipsed the previous mark of 26.73 set by team-mate Zhou Yafei, and Zhou's time of 23.98 was just inside Kohei Kawamoto's Asian record of 24.07.

Zhou, who was followed home by Japan's Ryo Takayasu and Korea's Sung Min, said he had felt under no pressure before the race and was satisfied with his swim.

"Our main rivals are the Japanese, so I knew I would have to swim fast to beat them. That's why I could break the Asian record," said Zhou, who is entered in three events in Macau.

Having missed out on a gold medal on the opening day of the shooting competition, Korea found their range on Thursday to claim two of the three titles on offer.

Han Jin Seop overcame a mediocre start to win the men's 50-metre rifle prone final with a total of 691.9, ahead of China's Tian Hui and Japan's Toshikazu Yamashita, who beat Mongolia's Bayar Sainer in a shoot-off for the bronze.

"I did not expect to win after losing so many points in the first half of the competition," said Han, who dedicated his victory to his late father and also to his coach.

La Kyung Ae then won a second gold for Korea, holding off Mongolia's Gundegmaa Otryad in the women's 25-metre pistol. China's Fei Fengji took the bronze.

La said she was tense right to the end, and survived to take the gold despite her last two efforts of 10.2 and 9.3.

Both Korean champions, as well as China's Du Li, were full of praise for the new shooting range, which forms part of the COTAI sports complex along with the Tennis Academy, Bowling Centre and Macau East Asian Games Dome.

China have three gold, three silver and two bronze from six events, followed by Korea (2-1-1), DPR Korea (1-0-0), Mongolia (0-1-1), Chinese Taipei (0-1-0) and Japan (0-0-2).

There are a total of 14 events in shooting.

Athens Olympic champion Du Li just loves Macau.

And not simply because she won the gold medal in the women's 10-metre air rifle final at the Macau International Shooting Range on Thursday.

It's the whole Macau experience that she is enjoying as a member of China's formidable shooting team.

"I am really impressed walking down Macau's streets," she said, "because of the Chinese and Portuguese style of buildings.

"I also like the Macau snacks, especially the sweet pastry, which are more tasty than the salty pastry."

Du, who won the Olympic gold in Athens in the 10-metre air rifle (40 shots), also felt very much at home on the range, as she beat compatriot Zhao Yinghui to the gold medal.

Mongolia's Zorigt Batkhuyag won the bronze, holding off the challenge from the two Koreas and Japan.

A silver medal today, but from tomorrow it's back to reality for Macau's taekwondo hero, Luis Gomes.

Gomes lost a bruising final to Korea's reigning world flyweight champion Ko Seok Hwa in the men's under 58 kg division at Macau Forum on Thursday afternoon.

His priority now, though, is to get back into studying mode.

"My next task is to catch up with all the school work, as all I've been doing since July is training for the East Asian Games," said the 20-year-old physical education student at Macau Polytechnic Institute, located next to the Forum.

"I want to thank my school for giving me the chance to practice, as the career of an athlete is quite short.

"I've been practicing taekwondo for five years and am gaining more and more confidence with each competition."

Gold medal-winner Ko admitted he needed to work hard to beat Gomes, due to the home advantage his rival enjoyed.

"I was very nervous before the fight because my opponent was from Macau and I knew he'd have a lot of people cheering for him," admitted the world champion.

"But my coach told me to approach the final like any other match and just concentrate on the fight. By doing this I was able to relax and win the gold medal."

Macau also won two bronze medals on the opening day of the eight-event taekwondo competition.

Korea blew away the opposition to complete a golden grand slam on the opening day of the taekwondo competition at Macau Forum on Thursday.

In women's competition, Park Myeong Suk beat Chinese Taipei's Yang Shuchun 4-2 in the under 49 kg final and Lee Seung A scored a narrow 8-7 victory over Chinese Taipei's Tseng Peihua to win the under 57 kg division.

In men's competition, Ko Seok Hwa outpointed Macau's Luis Gomes 13-4 in the under 58 kg final, and Lee Yong Yeoul romped to a 19-8 victory over Chinese Taipei's Sung Yuchi in the under 68 kg championship bout.

The 18-year-old Park kicked off the Korean gold fest and was proud to have done her duty for the country that invented the fiery martial art.

"We always feel under pressure to win because we are Korean," she said.

"My match was very intense throughout, and after I'd won I was quite relieved. It's the first gold medal I've won in an international competition," said Park, who took up the sport aged 13 and lives in the capital Seoul.

Rank Country Gold Silver Bronze Total
1 China 87 36 19 142
2 Japan 22 33 53 108
3 South Korea 22 32 33 87
4 Macau 9 13 11 33
5 Chinese Taipei 6 22 22 50
6 North Korea 4 6 13 23
7 Hong Kong 1 2 5 8
8 Mongolia 0 1 6 7
9 Guam 0 0 0 0

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South Korean and Macao's weightlifters stunned their heavily favored Chinese opponents to win gold medals Thursday in the last day of the weightlifting competition at the East Asian Games.

China's Sydney Olympic champion Ding Meiyuan fell victim to South Korean Jang Miran in the women's over 75kg category, while Chinese national champion Zhang Shaoling had to settle for the silver medal behind Macao's Yang Houqin in the women's 75kg division.

Jang, the Athens Olympics silver medalist, heaved 130kg in snatch and 165kg in clean and jerk for a winning total of 295kg, a Games record.

Ding, fresh from her triumph in the Chinese National Games last month, took the silver medal with 280kg (snatch 125kg/clean and jerk 155kg).

Japan's Fumiko Jonai was a distant third in 200kg.

Yang Houqin heaved 107kg in snatch and 135kg in clean and jerk to earn the host its first gold medal in the weightlifting competition.

Zhang and South Korean Kim Soonhee were tied at 240kg for the total weight, and the former took the silver due to her lighter body weight.

Despite such surprise defeats, China still managed to win two gold medals.

In the men's over 105kg category, Dong Feng heaved 180kg in snatch and 244kg in clean and jerk to win with 424kg.

South Korea's Jeon Sang-guen and Song Young-hoon finished second and third respectively.

China's Li Yijun grabbed the gold in the men's 105kg division after lifting 165kg in snatch and 206kg in clean and jerk.

South Korea's Hyun Yong-chul placed second with 344kg, while Japan's Noboru Sonoyama was third with 337.

Source: Xinhua

MACAU: When Japanese runners and South Korean taekwondo masters gained some medal-winning momentum, there was a small window when China didn’t seem so commanding at the 4th East Asian Games.

It didn’t last long on Thursday. Back in the pool for the night session, it was almost all about China. Again. The momentum swung back dramatically when Zhang Lin won the 200 freestyle – his second title at Macau – sparking a Chinese sequence of six gold medals. Japan’s Takeshi Matsuda prevented a Chinese sweep of all Thursday’s swimming gold medals in the next-to-last final, winning the 800 freestyle in 8:03.19.

China then made it seven wins in eight races – and 13 of 18 across two days of swimming – by winning the women’s 4x200 freestyle relay. North Korea later upset China 3-1 to top Group B in the soccer competition and set up a semifinal against South Korea.

The North vs South semi-final on Saturday will be the first major head-to-head contest since both nations agreed in Macau earlier this week to try and form a unified team for the 2008 Olympics. The Chinese squad, led by Glasgow Celtic defender Du Wei, will face Group A winner Japan in the other semifinal. Chinese swimmers set Asian records in men’s and women’s 50 butterfly finals and games records in four other events.

Zhou Jiawei produced an Asian best in the men’s one-lap ‘fly, touching in 23.98 seconds. Japan’s Ryo Takyasu was second in 24.34 and Sung Min of South Korea was third. Xu Yanwei shaved one-tenth off the women’s continental mark held by compatriot Zhou Yafei when she touched in 26.63. Zhou (26.71) placed second, also going under her old record. Other Chinese wins followed in the women’s 200 medley and 50 backstroke and the men’s 200 backstroke.

When Ouyong Kunpeng overhauled Japan’s Takashi Nakano to win the 200 backstroke in 1:59.20, he kissed his clenched knuckles and then punched his hand in the air. A Chinese sweep appeared inevitable, until Matsuda intervened. China had added only four gold medals in the first 24 finals on day six to boost its total to 78. By the end of the day, China’s gold-medal haul rose to 87. Japan won 10 of 13 athletics finals and boosted its golds to 22, while world champion Ko Seok-hwa won the men’s under-58 kilogrammes class as South Korea swept all four taekwondo finals and moved to 20 golds.

With the last eight track and field finals set for Friday, Japan has a mathematical chance of finishing on top in athletics, one of 17 sports being contested in Macau. But it would be unlikely: China has 21 athletics golds and Japan has 14. Japan’s medal resurgence began with consecutive wins in the women’s half marathon, men’s hammer throw, half marathon and 3,000-meter steeplechase.

Toshinari Fujimoto won the half marathon in 1 hour, 8 minutes and 14 seconds and Yoshiko Ichikawa won the women’s in 1:16.31, pipping South Korea’s Kim Kyung-hee by a mere two seconds. Japan won an unusual pole vault final that ended with only one athlete on the podium. Takuro Mori – who won at 5 meters – was the only athlete to clear the bar. His rivals didn’t record marks and weren’t awarded medals.

Taiwan won the women’s singles and mixed doubles tennis titles and was outright fifth with six gold medals – still three behind host Macau. Elsewhere, China kept its perfect record in six matches with an 83-47 win over Hong Kong and will qualify as number 1 for the basketball semi-finals. Taiwan finished women’s basketball preliminaries undefeated after a 63-58 win over South Korea. The same teams will meet again in Friday’s semi-finals. China (3-1) will face Japan (2-2) in the other semi-final. ap

MACAU (AP) - North and South Korea will meet Saturday in the soccer semifinal at the East Asian Games in their first major head-to-head contest since agreeing to try and form a single team for the 2008 Olympics.

The North Koreans beat China 3-1 on Thursday, topping Group B and earning a showdown with South Korea, which placed second to Japan in Group A.

Japan and China play in Saturday's other semifinal.

On Tuesday, North and South Korean officials met on the sidelines of the games and reaffirmed their desire to field a unified team for the 2006 Asian Games in Doha and the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

They said they would meet on Dec. 7 in the North's border city of Kaesong to discuss the logistics of forming the team.

The two Koreas have been technically at war since a 1953 cease-fire halted the three-year Korean War. A peace treaty was never signed.

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In celebration of the 4th East Asian Games staged in Macao SAR, MEAGOC will hold a Closing Ceremony featuring friendship and unity on 6 November, the last day of the Games.

On the morning of 3 November, representatives from Fire Services Bureau, Public Security Police Force, Lands, Public Works and Transport Bureau, China-Macau Autosports Club and the MEAGOC's management joined a press conference at the Macau Stadium and introduced arrangements for the Closing Ceremony which will take place in the Arena of Macau East Asian Games Dome.

Director of MEAGOC Eric Chau Ka Lai revealed that the Closing Ceremony will consist of performances by Chinese Orchestra, local music group, a famous Chinese Taipei singer and more.
The Closing Ceremony will present a one-hour pre-show before its official commencement. The cultural performance of the Ceremony will be divided into three parts: dancing and acrobatics; singing of songs symbolizing the friendship and unity of the nine participating countries and regions; and cheerful gathering of athletes and their young supporters in the Arena.

Over 650 performers from schools and organizations and 300 professional performers will take part in the performance which highlights the peace and harmony among East Asian countries and regions. At the end of the Closing Ceremony, the East Asian Games flag will be handed over to the next host city, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

All the related governmental departments are well-prepared for traffic and security arrangements on that night. Chief of Traffic Management Division of Lands, Public Works and Transport Bureau Mr. Lo Seng Chi said that in order to avoid traffic congestion, spectators are advised to take loop buses to the Dome. Commissar of Public Security Police Mr. Lam Man Wai added that traffic and parking arrangements had been made for those who were driving to the Dome. Clear signs will be displayed to indicate the parking spaces. Cars parked in unauthorized spaces will be towed away
Director of MEAGOC Peter Ung Hoi Ian briefed the conference about the tickets to the Closing Ceremony. Just like the Opening Ceremony, all the tickets to the Closing Ceremony are marked with the number of the entrance gate and seat, and spectators must take the seats as numbered. Mr Ung also reminded the spectators to keep their ticket stubs for the lucky draw to be held at the MEAGOC Headquarters at 5pm on 8 November to decide who would drive away the BMW vehicle.
The Dome will be open to ticket holders at 6 p.m. on 6 November. Spectators are advised to arrive earlier. Thanks to the support of the public, all the tickets to the Closing Ceremony were sold out, and no tickets will be available for sale at the Dome on that night.

Korea had to settle for six of the eight gold medals on offer in the two-day taekwondo kick-fest at Macau Forum.

After taking all four gold on Thursday, Korea were on course for a clean sweep when university freshman Hwang Kyung Seon and Kim Jin Wook, in his first overseas competition, won the women's under 67 kg and the men's under 80 kg titles, respectively.

But Yang Wenchen of Chinese Taipei ended Korea's golden streak at six by defeating Jung Sun Young 4-1 in the final of the women's over 67 kg class.

In the last final of the day, China's Lu Xiaobo outpointed Cheng Chiulung 9-5 in the men's over 80 kg final after the Chinese Taipei athlete had beaten Korea's Heo Jung Nyoung 13-12 in the semi-finals.

Not everyone was surprised by Yang's victory over Jung, especially the gold medal winner herself.

"The opponent I just met was the same I beat in the Korean open championship, and I defeated her again," said Yang, a second-year student at Taipei Sports Research Institute.

"I had a strong will to win this match, and I am very proud of myself. I'd like to thank my coach and all those who have instructed me."

Talking about the quality of the competition in Macau, Yang said every country had its own merits in each event.

"I am very happy that Taipei is amongst the strongest," she said. "My next goal is the Asian Games next year."

Japan has a proud history in synchronized swimming at world championships and Olympic Games.

But with the retirement of the celebrated pair of Miya Tachibana and Miho Takeda, there is room at the top for a new face.

Spectators at the Macau Olympic Aquatic Centre on Friday afternoon saw the future for Japan in Emiko Suzuki, who won the women's solo event by a comfortable margin.

A silver medallist in Japan's eight-strong synchro team at the Athens Olympics last summer, Suzuki won her first gold medal in international competition with a score of 96.084. China's Sun Wenyan was second with 93.917 and Korea's Yoo Na Mi third with 91.334.

"It's my first gold medal, so this East Asian Games will always be a memorable experience for me," said the 23-year-old champion.

"Although I moved a little and lost balance at one point, I was able to control my routine and felt satisfied at the end."

Suzuki, whose father and brother are professional golfers on the Japan Tour, took up the sport aged 10 and trains for up to 10 hours a day in the water or the gym, where weightlifting and stretching exercises help her performance.

There was no time to celebrate her gold medal, though, as she will compete in the women's duet final on Saturday.

Suzuki's coach, Masako Kaneko, described the athlete as "very serious and intelligent", and had no doubt her performance would be good enough for gold.

The coach also revealed that Suzuki is the synchro swim idol of DPR Korea competitor Tokgo Pom, who finished fourth.

The DPR Korea team has even brought a translator in order to chat with the Japan team, practice with them and try and copy their intricate moves.

China crossed the finish line of the athletics competition with a healthy advantage over nearest rival Japan on Friday.

Of the 45 gold medals available over four days of track and field competition, China claimed 26, Japan took 16 and Korea three.

Chinese Taipei, Macau, DPR Korea and Hong Kong were left to scramble for the scraps, and picked up three silver medals (all from Chinese Taipei) and 12 bronze between them.

On the last day of competition, Korea's Kim Deok Hyeon set a new East Asian Games record in the men's triple jump, recording a best effort of 16.79 metres to eclipse the previous mark of 16.71 set by China's Lao Jianfeng at Busan, Korea, in 1997.

Elsewhere, Japan's Yuki Nakamura completed a 10,000 and 5,000-metre double by winning the shorter of the two distances from compatriot Tomohiro Seto, who runs for the same company club team in Japan.

One of Japan's track and field coaches, Hiroshi Ishizuka, puts China's dominance down to the different social and sporting systems in the two countries.

"They have a big budget for sports in China. In Japan the support system is from companies, and in China it's a national system," he said.

Hong Kong's Wong Fai held his nerve in a shoot-off with DPR Korea's Kim Jong Su to win the men's 25-metre standard pistol competition at Macau International Shooting Range on Friday.

The China-born marksman, who won a gold medal for China in the same event at the 1990 Asian Games in Beijing, said he hadn't been sleeping well in the build-up to the event due to the pressure.

"But I was able to relax by listening to music on my earphones," he said.

"In the shoot-off I knew what I had to do because I've been in that position before."

Wong and Kim finished tied on 575 points, two ahead of Korea's Hong Sung Hwan, who won the bronze.

In the shoot-off, Wong scored 46 to Kim's 43, giving Hong Kong their first gold medal in the highly competitive shooting competition and only their second of the Games, following victory for the men's duilian team in wushu taolu.

"I'm very happy about this win and hope I can repeat the glory at the Beijing Olympics," said the 35-year-old Wong.

The blazing sun over Macau Stadium was matched by a blistering finish from China's Xing Huina to win the women's 5,000 metres in sensational style on Friday morning.

The Athens Olympics 10,000 metres champion ran alongside Japan's Hiromi Ominami for almost the entire race, and even trailed at the bell.

But once they had rounded the first bend and hit the back straight, Xing took off to leave the Japanese trailing and eventually won by some 50 metres.

It was an incredible finish to a race that had been run in hot and humid conditions, and during which Xing almost came to a standstill on a couple of occasions.

Xing won in a slow 16 minutes, 04.56 seconds, followed by Ominami in 16:10.77 and Korea's Bae Hae Jin in 16:35.35.

After two withdrawals, the field of four was completed by Ro Myong Ok of DPR Korea, who was almost lapped by Xing in her last-lap fireworks.

Xing said she had never been concerned about the outcome.

"I felt I was always in control of the race, even though I didn't expect the Japanese girl to be so close," she said.

"It's been a hard year and this is my last race, so I'm looking forward to having a rest.

"The weather was very hot and that caused some problems, but I was confident I would win."

South Korea swept 13 gold medals on the sixth day of the East Asian Games, Thursday, eagerly chasing second placed Japan.

Among the gold medals, five came from the bowling event and four from the taekwondo competition in the Macau-held sport festival, enabling South Korea to gain a total of 22 medals as at 2 p.m. Friday, just one behind Japan. China kept its stranglehold at the top of the rankings with 90.

In the bowling competition, Choi Bok-eum and Kim Hyo-mi took two golds in single events. Kim clinched another gold in the finals of the women's trio event along with Choi Jin-a and Kim Yeau-jin, beating their Japanese rivals. Another two golds in the alley came one each from the men’s and women’s team events.

In the men's taekwondo competition, Ko Seok-hwa outperformed Macau's Luis Gomes 13-4 in the under 58-kg final, while Lee Yong-yeoul beat Taiwan’s Sung Yuchi 19-8 in the under 68-kg class.

In the women's under 49-kg final, Park Myeong-suk defeated Taiwanese Yang Shuchun 4-2 and Lee Seung-a edged another Taiwanese Tseng Peihua 8-7 in the under 57-kg division.

Shooter Han Jin-seop won the 50-meter rifle prone discipline with 690.8 points and La Kyung-ae clinched a gold in the women's 25-metre pistol.

The pair Kim Dong-hyun and Kwon Oh-hee picked up another gold in the men’s tennis double.

Jang Mi-ran lifted 130 kg in the snatch and 165 kg in the clean and jerk, winning in the women’s 75-kg class in the weightlifting competition.

MACAU (AP) - Chinese gymnasts are bracing for a new gymnastics scoring system that appears to place a premium on difficulty.

A Chinese official says his athletes will cope with it and likely benefit, while Taiwan is concerned about the possible impact on weaker gymnastics countries. The international gymnastics federation, known as FIG, is expected to scrap the 1-to 10-point scale starting Jan. 1 and replace it with a two-prong score. An open-ended difficulty mark will be added to a maximum execution mark of 10, so the final score can be more than 10.

The Chinese team leader at the Macau East Asian Games, Zhang Peiwen, said the new system requires everyone to rethink their strategy.

"The whole gymnastics scene, all the countries in the world have to reshuffle," Zhang said on the sidelines of the Macau competition.

"Everyone is starting at zero. Everyone has to adjust," Chinese head coach Chen Xiong said.

Zhang said under the new system, a gymnast who doesn't attempt a difficult move may be out of the running even before he or she performs, and that there's less margin for error on execution.

Chen said clean execution bonus points for the men's pommel horse, parallel bars and rings will be abolished.

"Athletes who are outstanding, who tackle difficult moves, may have an advantage," Zhang said.

"The difficulty demanded will be increasingly higher, the quality demanded will be increasingly higher," he predicted.

"The overall impression I get from the new rules is that it places more comprehensive and greater demands on an athlete's competence, technique and mental toughness," added Chen. "You have to be a strong athlete. Your technique has to be accurate and complete."

Complex moves like one Chinese gymnast Cheng Fei's is fine-tuning could become the norm. Cheng debuted a backward 180-degree flip and forward 540-degree flip in the women's vault individual competition in Macau Wednesday, but fell on landing. She ended up second.

The Taiwanese team expressed worries that the new rules would hurt countries that aren't gymnastics powerhouses.

"For us, it entails too big of an increase in difficulty," Taiwanese gymnast Weng Shih-hang said.

Weng said gymnastics could devolve into a sport of brute strength.

"It could become a matter of physical strength. You could win by doing more movements," he said.

Taiwan's head coach Yu Chih-ying said teams like his could fall even further behind in team events because of inconsistency in talent across events.

Still, he sounded a positive note.

"It's another challenge. I hope we can deal with the challenge calmly. I believe if we work hard, we will have a rather positive result," Yu said.

Chinese coach Chen pointed out the scoring changes could affect some events more than others. For example, it may not have a big impact on the vault event because the movements in that event are limited.

He also said the new system is good for fairness because it breaks out a difficulty mark, which is less subjective than the previous method.

There are also concerns that spectators may have a hard time evaluating scores under the new system, under which athletes can score more than 10.

"Why would some athletes get 11, 12 points and others 13 or 14? A spectator may not be able to understand the score," Chen said.

MACAU (AP) _ Olympic gold medalist Xing Huina won the women's 5,000-meter race Friday, when China ensured first-place in the East Asian Games athletics standings by winning five of the last eight finals.

Xing, who won the gold medal in the 10,000 meters in Athens, won here in 16 minutes, 4.56 seconds as China swept the first three gold medals.

Japan's Hiromi Ominami was second in 16:10.77 while South Korea's Bae Hae-jin took the bronze in 16:35.35.

China went into the final day of competition in athletics leading Japan by seven golds with eight events remaining. The Chinese finished the athletics competition with 26 golds, 10 ahead of Japan.

"The athletes from Japan have done well here," said Xing. "My condition wasn't the best and it was really hot out there but I knew it was important to go out and get the gold medal."

Xing ran alongside Ominami for almost the entire race. She slowed down at several stages but finished strong, crossing the line about 40 meters ahead of Ominami.

"I didn't have any intention to slow down," said Xing. "But when I noticed my competitor was coming up I was able to increase my speed."

Feng Yun got China started earlier with a win in the women's 100 hurdles.

BEIJING, Nov. 4 -- China have suffered a 3-1 defeat by DPR Korea in the East Asian Games but still advanced into the semifinals in Macao.

Chinese manager Zhu Guanghu surprisingly put eight second-team players on Thursday's starting line-up.
The new roster jumped to a good start, though, with Wang Ke scoring an opener 14 minutes into the game.

However, that didn't kick off a spree of more goals for China, instead, surrendering the remaining chances to the North Koreans.

Within 15 minutes in the middle of the first half, the DPRK team finished a remarkable three-goal comeback which would wrap up a match victory and put them on top of the group.

Both with semi-guaranteeing 6 points coming into the game, neither China nor the DPRK worried too much about losing it. In fact, some Chinese media even speculate that Zhu decided to throw it away in order for his team to face Japan, which he prefers to play against than South Korea, in the semifinals.

So, the two Koreas will clash in the other semi showdown.

None of the four teams is composed of the finest players from their respective countries. But many on the Chinese side are likely to be reserved for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

(Source: CRIENGLISH.com)

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Chinese Taipei's rising tennis star Wang Yeutzuoo underlined his quality with a crushing straight-sets victory over Japan's Toshihide Matsui in the men's singles final on Friday.

The 20-year-old Wang, a semi-finalist at the World University Games in Turkey in August, won 6-1, 6-0 in just 62 minutes at the Tennis Academy Centre Court.

"I knew the strategy of my opponent very well and that's why I could win the gold medal," he said.

"I felt there was some distance between us, but I still have much improvement to make."

Chinese Taipei also beat Japan in the women's doubles final, with Chan Yungjan and Chuang Chiajung defeating Mayumi Yamamoto and Tomoko Yonemura 6-0, 7-5 in 80 minutes.

It was the second gold medal of the Games for Chan, the women's singles champion, and also for Chuang, a mixed doubles champion.

"We have played quite well together and improved as the tournament has gone on," said Chuang.

"I hope we have more chances to play in Macau."

Chinese Taipei won four of the five gold medals in tennis, with Korea taking the other.

Korea had to settle for six of the eight gold medals on offer in the two-day taekwondo kick-fest at Macau Forum.

After taking all four gold on Thursday, Korea were on course for a clean sweep when university freshman Hwang Kyung Seon and Kim Jin Wook, in his first overseas competition, won the women's under 67 kg and the men's under 80 kg titles, respectively.

But Yang Wenchen of Chinese Taipei ended Korea's golden streak at six by defeating Jung Sun Young 4-1 in the final of the women's over 67 kg class.

In the last final of the day, China's Lu Xiaobo outpointed Cheng Chiulung 9-5 in the men's over 80 kg final after the Chinese Taipei athlete had beaten Korea's Heo Jung Nyoung 13-12 in the semi-finals.

Not everyone was surprised by Yang's victory over Jung, especially the gold medal winner herself.

"The opponent I just met was the same I beat in the Korean open championship, and I defeated her again," said Yang, a second-year student at Taipei Sports Research Institute.

"I had a strong will to win this match, and I am very proud of myself. I'd like to thank my coach and all those who have instructed me."

Talking about the quality of the competition in Macau, Yang said every country had its own merits in each event.

"I am very happy that Taipei is amongst the strongest," she said. "My next goal is the Asian Games next year."

There was a major surprise on the third night of the East Asian Games swimming competition when Olympic champion Luo Xuejuan was beaten by a 13-year-old team-mate in the women's 100-metre breaststroke final.

Luo, who won her Olympic gold in Athens in this event last summer, was beaten into second place by Wang Qun, who will not turn 14 years old until November 17.

Wang took the gold medal in 1:08.56, ahead of Luo in 1:09.14. Japan's Sayaka Nakamura won the bronze medal in 1:10.76.

Luo holds the East Asian Games record at 1:07.42 and the Asian record of 1:06.44, and at least retained these honours.

But she was far from distressed by her shock defeat on Friday evening at the end of a busy year, which included the world championships in Canada and the National Games in Nanjing.

"I am not disappointed at all," she said.

"In fact I'm happy that one of our younger swimmers can win a gold medal.

"It's good for the national team of China, and it doesn't matter who wins."

Along with Athens hurdles hero Liu Xiang and diving pin-up Guo Jingjing, Luo is one of the biggest sports stars to compete in the fourth East Asian Games. She had won the gold medal in the 50-metre breaststroke on Wednesday in a Games record time of 31.67 seconds.

The quality of the opposition spurred Korea's Lee Hye Jin to victory in the women's 50-metre rifle three positions final at the Macau International Shooting Range on Friday.

Lee scored 684.1 points to leave Japan's Seiko Iwata in second place on 674.6 and China's Wu Liuxi on 673.3 and with the bronze medal. Another Chinese sharpshooter, Yin Wen, was fourth.

"I'm proud to win because the Chinese in particular are very competitive in the shooting competition, yet I still got the gold medal," said Lee.

"I felt I could have done better, but that was my third gold medal in international competition. I think the venue and the facilities here in Macau are very good."

China's Liu Tianyou won the men's 10-metre air rifle final from compatriot and world record-holder Zhu Qinan.

"I've been training long and hard for this event, and it's all paid off," said Liu, after his victory over the Athens Olympic champion. Zhu's world record of 702.7 still stands, as Liu shot 700.3.

After nine of 14 events, China have four gold medals, Korea three, and DPR Korea and Hong Kong one each.

Some athletes have had to work harder than others to win a gold medal at the East Asian Games.

One of them is Choi Bok Eum, the 18-year-old Korean bowler who earned the gold medal in the men all events final with a total score of 5,678.

All nine countries and regions are represented in the men's bowling by 47 competitors, creating some fierce but friendly rivalries in the alleys of the sparkling new Bowling Centre at the COTAI sports complex.

Choi's efforts in singles (when he finished a disappointing fourth), doubles, trios and team gave him his high points total, ahead of compatriots Kang Hee Won and Choi Jong In for a Korean 1-2-3.

The top eight bowlers all broke the old East Asian Games record of 5,172, set by Tseng Sheng-Hsien of Chinese Taipei in 2001.

"First of all I would like to thank God," said Choi, of his East Asian Games achievements.

"After the individual event my coach told me to forget about it, clear my mind and just start again.

"I would like to thank the coach for that advice and for the training that has made me a champion.

"We've all been looking forward to the East Asian Games and training since May, so we are well prepared. All the hard work is worthwhile, and I feel I have gained rich experience since I started playing seven years ago."

In the women all events final, Korea filled the top five positions, led by Kim Hyo Mi, Choi Jin A and Gang Hye Eun. The first two broke the old East Asian Games record of 5,203, with Kim's new mark at 5,582.

The top 16 players in both categories qualified for the Masters.

The penultimate day of the fourth East Asian Games will provide a medal market for the nine competing teams, highlighted by a dose of Saturday Night Fever!

There will be a total of 42 gold medals available - the most for any single day of competition - including 10 for dance sport, eight for rowing and seven for karate-do.

There will be a foot-tapping treat at the Macau East Asian Games Dome Theatre for the dance sport, which features Latin favourites such as the cha-cha-cha and the tango, and Standard staples like the waltz and the slow foxtrot.

Tickets sold out quicker than the quickstep for the East Asian Games dance-athon, and the music, dress and sheer exuberance of the occasion will make it a highlight for the spectators. The action starts at 4pm.

With so many medals available on Saturday, the table could look very different heading into Sunday's grand finale than it does at close of play on Friday night.

But one thing will not change, and that's China at the top.

After seven days, China's golden tally is now in three figures, at 101, plus 45 silver and 25 bronze for 171.

Japan (26-46-60 for 132) and Korea (26-33-45 for 104) complete the top three positions, followed by Chinese Taipei, Macau, DPR Korea, Hong Kong, Mongolia and Guam.

The tiny, tropical Pacific island of Guam won its first medal of the Games on Friday, a bronze for 21-year-old Janiesuk Quenga in taekwondo.

It was only Guam's third medal in East Asian Games history, all of them bronze.

Taking the opportunity of the 4th East Asian Games, Incheon's delegation from Korea hosted a series of campaigns in Macau promoting the progress of bidding for the right to stage the Asian Games in 2014.

As part of the promotion, the delegation hosted an official dinner at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel on November 4. Among those present were the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Macao 4th East Asian Games Organising Committee, Mr. Manuel Silvério, and the President of the East Asian Games Association, Mr. Eddie Laam.

After enjoying the promotional clip, Mayor Ahn Sang Soo saluted the 4th East Asian Games as an undoubted success, which would have been impossible without the hard work of everybody involved. He believed that each Asian country deserves to enjoy glories brought about by victories in sports meets, while Incheon would help Asian countries to do so. If Incheon wins the hosting right of the Asian Games, they will work closely with OCA and each NOC to invite and train young elite athletes from eligible countries, so that they can better compete in the 2014 Asian Games. By so doing, the Mayor is confident that will ultimately enable the Asian Games to rival the Olympics in terms of popularity and economic benefits. If the hosting rights go to Incheon, the host city promised to cooperate with OCA to ensure the Games contribute to peace, not only on the Korean peninsula but in all of Asia. In addition, the Mayor believed that the ongoing peace process on the Korean peninsula would make the 2014 Games a festival of peace. He is pleased that the two Koreas have already agreed to form a unified team to join the Asian Games next year and the Beijing Olympics in 2008. Before he concluded, he extended his appreciation for the warm hospitality that Macau has given to the delegation.

Chairwoman Park Seung Suk of the Incheon Daejeon Metropolitan Council proposed a toast for the efforts made in bidding for the hosting rights of the Games.

Macau - Olympic champion Luo Xuejuan suffered an embarrassing defeat to 13-year-old teammate Wang Qun on Friday as China won seven out of eight swimming races to reach 100 gold medals at the East Asian Games.

Ouyang Kunpeng claimed his third Asian record in recent weeks with 25.18sec in the 50m backstroke and China also set a new regional best in the men's 4x100m.

Luo looked distinctly out of sorts as she failed to peg back the youthful Wang, who took a big lead after the turn in the 100m breaststroke and finished in 1min 08.56 sec, nearly two seconds off her team-mate's Olympic record.

"I certainly didn't expect to win the gold medal," said Wang. "I didn't swim at the National Games and Luo did, so maybe she felt a little tired today.

"But I'm very happy with the result nonetheless."

Pang Jiaying set a new Games record 1:58.49 in the women's 200m freestyle, a feat matched by Zhou Yafei's 58.43 in the 100m butterfly.

Wu Peng won the men's 400m individual medley in 4:20.50 and Yang Jieqiao won the women's 1 500m - securing China's 100th gold of the Games - before China set a new regional mark of 3:20.52 in the men's 4x100m freestyle.

Ouyang, 22, who set new Asian marks in the 100m and 200m backstroke at China's National Games last month, said his latest triumph would give him a boost for the Beijing Olympics where China is hoping to top the medals table.

"This will give me confidence for the Asian Games and the Beijing Olympics," he said. "I've been in a lot of competitions lately so I arrived here in pretty good shape and I'm very happy with this result."

China, who will now expect to better the 105 medals they won in Shanghai in 1993, have dominated the East Asian Games, winning more than half of the 169 titles decided so far.

Having performed admirably against Serena Williams in the first round of the French Open in August, Taiwanese teenager Chan Yung-jan beat compatriot Chan Chin-wei 6-2, 6-1 in the women's tennis final yesterday to capture the nation's fifth gold medal of the East Asian Games.

Chan relied on a solid backhand and a strong serve at Macau Tennis Academy, closing with a deft backhand winner in 1 hour, 19 minutes. The match had to be stopped several times as Chan Chin-wei received treatment for lower back pain but Chan Yung-jan said that didn't effect her game.

"It didn't bother me," said the 17-year-old Chan, who has been a professional for 18 months and is ranked No. 210 on the women's tour. "That happens all the time in tennis and I just tried to stay focused and play my game."

In a men's semifinal, Taiwan's Wang Yeu-tzuoo had a 6-2, 6-2 victory over South Korea's Kwon Oh-hee to book a place in today's final, where he'll face Japan's Toshihide Matsui. Taiwan also claim ed both gold and silver in the mixed as Chuang Chia-jung and Yi Chu-huan beat Chan Chin-wei and Chang Kai-lung 6-3, 6-2.

Taiwan failed to win a gold the first four Taekwondo finals, as South Korea dominated. Taiwan's Lai Chun-hung and Zuo Yi of China were each awarded bronze in the under 58 kilogram category, while Tseng Pei-hua got silver in the women's under-57 kg event.

In the opening match, Park Myeon-sun outscored Taiwan's Yang Shu-chun 4-2 to take the gold, while South Korea completed the clean sweep in the men's under-68 kilogram where Lee Yong-yeoul cruised to a19-8 victory over Taiwan's Sung Yu-chi.

Meanwhile, Taiwan's women face South Korea again in the semifinals of the basketball tournament, having ended the round-robin stage with a perfect 4-0 record, culminating in a 63-58 victory over the Koreans yesterday.

Taiwan finished top of the five team pool, they are now favorites for the gold but will have to get past the third-placed Koreans again. Head coach Lin Hung Ling-Yao said, "The Koreans were better around the boards than us, but I am still confident Chinese Taipei will win the gold medal."

Japan, which finished second, and China meet in the other semi. In the men's 3,000-meters steeplechase, Taiwan's Wu Wen-chien won a bronze with a time of 8:50.41, while Chen Fu-pin did the same in the men's 1,500 meters.

Taiwan's men also did well to claim a silver in the 4x100 relay.

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Rank Country Gold Silver Bronze Total
1 China 101 45 25 171
2 Japan 26 46 60 132
3 South Korea 26 33 45 104
4 Chinese Taipei 9 25 24 58
5 Macau 9 13 14 36
6 North Korea 4 7 13 24
7 Hong Kong 2 2 5 9
8 Mongolia 0 1 6 7
9 Guam 0 0 1 1

A rigorous training schedule and the support of the "Great Leader" Kim Jong Il propelled DPR Korea to a five-medal haul in the rowing competition at sun-drenched Nam Van Lake Nautical Centre on Saturday.

Two gold, one silver and two bronze medals were won by the mighty and muscular DPR Korea team, and Kim Myong Ok and Ro Kum Suk were the girls with the golden oars in the women's lightweight double sculls.

Kim summed up the determination and the motivation in the DPR Korea camp.

"I regarded this competition as very important before coming to Macau, and trained as instructed by our Great Leader, Kim Jong Il," said Kim.

"With his Excellency's faith and will we are able to achieve our best result."

Under a scorching sun which had volunteers and staff seeking cover in the shade of the temporary stand, Kim and Ro powered to victory in 1 minute, 38.260.

China's Yu Hua and Fu Fengjun took the silver in 1:39.090, and Japan's Kahori Uchiyama and Ayako Horibata were third in 1:40.780.

Kim revealed they had been training for the East Asian Games since May for five hours a day, and the strong team spirit had been bonded in the sports dormitory.

When asked what made the DPR Korea team so powerful, she replied: "Our Great Leader Kim Jong Il pays great attention to sports, no matter what the sports are.

"We are supplied and provided with sufficient materials for our training and competition. Other countries have this also, but it is the belief in the Great Leader Kim Jong Il that we can win for our country."

Kim, 24, has been rowing since she was 15, and this was her first international competition.

"I am training for another gold medal in the Olympic Games in Beijing," she said.

It's true what they say about sports and politics not mixing.

Just witness the following scene at the Nam Van Lake Nautical Centre on Saturday.

Japan's Kazushige Ura and Daisaku Takeda had just won the men's lightweight double sculls of the eight-event rowing competition.

On the medal podium, runners-up Pae Sang Hyok and Kim Kyong Un of DPR Korea were to their right, and China's bronze medallists Wu Chongjiu and Jiang Yong to their left.

After the national anthem of Japan had been played, the six rowers moved together for a group photo, and put their arms round each other's shoulders in a show of unity.

With political tensions between the countries high in the region for a number of reasons, it was rowing and the East Asian Games in Macau that could bring them together.

"Sports is peace," said Japan's Ura, whose gold medal was an early birthday present, as he will turn 30 on November 10.

"Japan, DPR Korea, China¡Kno problem. All members are friends."

With the distinctive architecture of the Casino Lisboa offering an exotic backdrop to the rowing competition at Nam Van Lake Nautical Centre, the safest bet in town was that China would win more medals than any other team.

In the event, red came up four times.

The other four gold medals were shared by DPR Korea (two), Korea and Japan. China also won three silver and one bronze, DPR Korea one silver and two bronze, Korea three silver, Japan one silver and three bronze, and Chinese Taipei and Hong Kong one bronze apiece.

China's four gold came in the women's coxless pair, men's lightweight single sculls, men's coxless four and women's quadruple sculls.

Zhang Guoliang had the honour of winning the men's lightweight single sculls, and said he had found his top form when it mattered most.

"I was able to bring all my skills into full play to secure the gold medal," he said.

"It's very satisfying to achieve this result, and my next big goal is the Beijing Olympics."

Japan's Emiko Suzuki completed a synchronized swimming golden double on Saturday by winning the women's duet title with Saho Harada.

The day after wrapping up the individual gold at Macau Olympic Aquatic Centre, Suzuki was joined by Harada in the water and on the top step of the medals podium.

The Japanese pair went into Saturday's free routine with only a slender lead over China's Jiang Tingting and Jiang Wenwen from the technical routine, but eclipsed their rivals comfortably to take gold with a total score of 96.084.

The Chinese duet were second with 95.417, and Korea's Kim Min Jeong and Yoo Na Mi third with 91.834.

The banners in the IPM Multisport Pavilion were not quite accurate.

"Macau Karate-Do Team: Win! Win! Win!" they said.

But they were only half right, because on the first day of the karate competition, Macau actually produced six wins - six medals, including a gold for Paula Carion.

"It's not an easy job," said the 23-year-old champion, referring to the effort required to win a gold medal on home turf, in the women's under 60 kg kumite.

"It's more like it's not a hobby any more. It's more like a task getting a gold medal because I had all my friends and family and karate people from Macau cheering me. It is so important.

"It's not just another karate competition. There's so many different other sports, and it's a new experience."

She said she'd been training hard for the East Asian Games for three years "day and night - and now it's all come back."

It was Macau's 10th gold medal of the Games.

The three silver medals came from Pansy Cheung Pui Si (women's individual kata), Vong Ka Seng (men's individual kata) and Kou Man I (women's under 53 kg kumite), and the two bronze from Wan Chi Iat (men's under 55 kg kumite) and Pang Iat Long (men's under 60 kg kumite).

If you need to pack a bit more power in that weak physique, try taking up karate.

Who knows, it might even lead to a gold medal.

On the first day of the karate competition at IPM Multisport Pavilion on Saturday, two of the seven gold medal-winners said they had taken up the Japanese martial art to build up their physical strength.

"I started karate because my father thought I was very thin," said Chinese Taipei's Hsieh Cheng Kang, after winning the men's under 55 kg kumite title.

"He wanted his son to be stronger."

The fourth-year student at Taipei Sports University showed how strong he was in winning the final against Korea's Huh Chung Soo.

"I am very content because I persevered and kept going right to the end," he said. "It's my best performance."

It's not only the kumite (fighting) that builds you up. The kata (forms) will do just as well, according to Takashi Katada, Japan's gold medal-winner in the men's individual kata.

"I began playing karate because I was too thin and wanted to become stronger," he said.

"I hope this gold medal can be the starting point for the next world championships."

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Macau, Nov. 5 (AP): Japan upset NBA prospect Yi Jianlian's Chinese lineup in a basketball semifinal shocker on Saturday at the East Asian Games.

For all its might on the track and in the pool, it was men's basketball where China was most expected to showcase its regional dominance.

But Japan capitalized when Yi had early foul trouble, and Kei Igarashi had a game-high 19 points in the 68-60 win.

Japan advanced to Sunday's final against Taiwan, a 61-48 winner over South Korea, leaving China to play of for third place.

Yi, who scored 14, was restricted to 25 minutes and the crowd booed loudly when he was fouled out with five minutes remaining.

``My defense was a little slow, so I fouled,'' said Yi, an 18-year-old forward widely tipped to follow the giant footsteps of Houston Rockets Chinese import Yao Ming.

China ``played very well, but erratic. We were better today. That is very simple,'' said coach Ladislav Janac. His Japanese lineup that was 3-3 after preliminaries.

North Korea advanced to Sunday's soccer final with a 2-0 win over South Korea in the first major head-to-head sports contest since both agreed to form a single team for the Asian Games and 2008 Olympics.

South Korean goalkeeper Yoo Hyun couldn't handle Kim Jong Jun's powerful right-foot strike from the edge of the area in the 29th minute and the North took a 1-0 lead into halftime.

Ryang Yong Gi scored just after the break for the important two-goal buffer in a physical but generally clean encounter.

China and Japan were playing off in the other semifinal.

After the afternoon session on the penultimate day, China had 108 gold medals and 188 overall. Japan had 33 and South Korea had 28 gold medals.

Taiwan moved to outright fourth with 11 gold, followed by Macau (10), North Korea (6) and Hong Kong (2).

Tsogbadrakh Munkhzul won the women's 10-meter air pistol, giving Mongolia its first gold medal of the Games and leaving only tiny Guam without a win in Macau.

Double Olympic gold medal-winning shooter Yang Ling won the men's 10-meter running target final with 588 points.

China won half of the rowing finals, with North Korea collecting two gold medals and Japan winning the lightweight double sculls and South Korea the double sculls.

North Koreans Kim Myon Gok and Ro Kum Suk captured gold in the women's lightweight double sculls and Hong Ung Yong clocked 1:47.000 to win the women's lightweight single sculls.

China's wins were in men's lightweight sculls and coxless four and the women's quadruple sculls and coxless pair.

About 12 hours after upstaging Olympic champion Luo Xuejuan in her favored event _ the 100-meter breaststroke _ 13-year-old Wang Qun was back in heats of the 200 breaststroke Saturday, aiming for a second gold medal.

Luo, who won the 100 breaststroke at Athens, had complained of being sick before the final, but still earmarked Wang as a future star.

Wang qualified third fastest for the 200 breaststroke final behind Japan's Megumi Taneda and China teammate Luo Nan.

China won 7-of-8 swimming finals on the second and third nights of competition, and led the swimming standings with 20 gold to Japan's five.

With only 16 swimming finals remaining on the weekend, China is certain to reclaim No. 1 status for swimming in the region.

Japan, third at the Olympic swimming standings last year, didn't bring many of its top swimmers to Macau.

China's Feng Yun sprints to victory Friday in the 100-meter hurdles
http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2005/SPORT/11/04/easian.games.fri.roundup.ap/story.feng.yun.ap.jpg

MACAU, China (AP) -- Feng Yun and Olympic gold medalist Xing Huina ended Japan's challenge on the track, then China turned its focus back to usurping its old rivals' status in the pool.

China won seven of eight swimming finals on day seven at the East Asian Games, matching its sequence of the previous night.

With 20 gold medals to Japan's five in the pool, the Chinese are clearly on top.

And the domination isn't restricted to swimming. Across all sports after seven days, China had 101 gold medals with Japan and South Korea, its nearest challengers, on 26 apiece.

At the Athens Olympics, Japan finished third in swimming with eight medals -- placing behind only the United States and Australia.

China had one swimming gold medal in Athens and none in the latest world championships at Montreal.

The Chinese have been far superior to Japan at the Macau Olympic Aquatic Center, although Wu Peng, who edged two Japanese to win the 400 medley in 4:20.50, said the lopsided medal tally wasn't a true reflection of the regional strength.

"The athletes from Japan are not the best they have to offer, and the results show that," he said.

Daisuke Kimura is one Japanese swimmer who prospered in the absence of an Olympian -- in his case double Athens champion Kosuke Kitajima.

Kimura snapped China's five-race golden sequence by winning the 200 breaststroke on Friday in 2:14.67 from China's Xue Ruipeng (2:16.18).

"This is my first title since my third year of high school," said the 24-year-old Kimura.

In other swimming, Zhou Yafei turned the tables on Xu Yanwei, claiming the women's 100 butterfly in a games record 58.43. Xu had broken Zhou's Asian record to win the 50 'fly the previous night.

"This is the best result of my career, better than the national games," said Zhou. "I've really been putting in the hard work, and it's just paid off."

Ouyong Kunpeng earned his second gold of the meet when he won the 50 backstroke in an Asian record 25.18, taking 0.35 off the continental mark he already owned.

Japan started Friday with a mathematical chance of finishing atop the athletics standings -- having 14 gold medals to China's 21 and with eight finals on the program.

It took Feng all of 13.09 seconds to ensure China held onto No. 1 ranking, her winning time in the women's hurdles.

Olympic 10,000-meter champion Xing won the women's 5,000 meters and Zhang Qi won the shot put as China swept the first three track finals.

China finished with 26 gold on the track to Japan's 15.

Yuki Makamura completed a distance double here by winning the 5,000 meters in 14:05.77 from Japanese teammate Tomohiro Seto, while South Korea's Kim Deok-hyeon won the men's triple jump at 16.79 meters to interrupt China's winning sequence on the track.

Hiroshi Ishizuka, a coach with the Japan track team, said China's dominance was a reflection of government funding, making it hard to compete.

"They have a big budget for sports in China. In Japan the support system is from companies, and in China it's a national system," Ishizuka told reporters.

South Korea's move into second place during the afternoon coincided with its men's basketball team beating Japan 78-62. The win meant South Korea will avoid the strong China team in the semifinals. Japan meets Taiwan in the semis.

China edged Japan 72-69 in a women's semifinal, advancing to a basketball decider against unbeaten Taiwan.

Wang Yeu-tzuoo outclassed Japan's Toshihide Matsui 6-1, 6-1 in the men's singles final, helping Taiwan claim four of the five tennis titles.

That helped Taiwan edge ahead of host Macau for fourth place. Both have nine gold medals apiece, with Taiwan having more overall.

Hong Kong collected its second gold medal of the games when shooter Wong Fai won the 25-meter standard pistol final from North Korea's Kim Jong Su. It took Guam almost seven days to notch its first medal, with Janie Quenga taking bronze in the women's heavyweight taekwondo.

On Saturday, North and South Korea meet in a soccer semifinal here, the first major head-to-head contest since both nations agreed to form a single team for the 2006 Asian Games and the 2008 Olympics.

EAST ASIAN GAMES: Local athletes secured four gold medals in tennis and another in taekwondo as China dominated athletics

AP , MACAU
Saturday, Nov 05, 2005

Wang Yeu-tzuoo (王宇佐) relied on strong serving and precise passing to beat Japanese Toshihide Matsui 6-1, 6-0 in just over an hour in yesterday's singles final at the East Asian Games as Taiwan won four of five tennis golds at the event.

Taiwanese pair Chan Yung-jan (詹詠然) and Chuang Chia-jung (莊佳容) beat Japan's Mayumi Yamamoto and Tomoko Yonemura 6-0, 7-5 in the women's doubles final.

In the men's singles, fourth-seeded Matsui, ranked No. 392, was in trouble from the start. He faced three break points in his opening service game but saved them all.

Serve-and-volleyer Matsui then struggled with his serve. Down 1-2, Matsui let a floating return by Wang go, but it landed in. He then double-faulted twice to hand Wang the break.

Top-seeded Wang, ranked No. 101, broke Matsui's next service game for a 5-1 lead, then held at love to close out the set.

Wang broke Matsui again in the first game of the second set with solid hitting from the back of the court.

In the second game, Matsui lost his composure, complaining about a line call and tossing his racket. It didn't help.

Down 0-2 at deuce, Matsui double faulted, then missed a volley to give Wang the 3-0 lead.

Wang held, and in the next game, Matsui faced two break points. He saved both, but then served consecutive double faults to lose his serve again.

Wang came back from 0-30 down to take the final game and clinch gold.

Matsui said he never got into the match because Wang got off to a good start.

"It's all about the first couple of games in the first set ... If I could stay with him in the first couple of games, 1-1, 2-2, 3-3, then the match would be closer," Matsui said.

Men's semifinalists Kown Oh-hee and Lee Seung-hoon of South Korea were awarded bronze.

Taiwan has dominated the tennis competition in Macau. Other than Friday's two golds, Chan won the women's singles in an all-Taiwanese final. Taiwan also won the mixed doubles. The men's doubles gold went to South Korea.

taekwondo

Taiwan's Yang Wen-chen (楊紋貞) defeated South Korea's Jung Sun-young in the women's heavyweight division.

Yang outscored Jung 4-1 in the women's over-67 event at Macau Forum for Taiwan's first gold medal in taekwondo at the Games.

South Korea won all four golds on Thursday and took the first two yesterday, the final day of the taekwondo competition.

"I'm very happy and proud to win," said Yang. "I didn't think the judging was very fair yesterday. Every country has its own advantages."

Yang also defeated Jung at the Korean championships and said that gave her a boost for the match.

"I beat her in the past and that really helped today," said Yang."I'm really happy that I was able to get a win for Taiwan in this event."

Also in the women's over-67, Janie Quenga picked up the bronze, giving Guam its first medal of the 4th East Asian Games.

In the women's under-67, South Korea's Hwang Kyung-seon outscored Taiwan's Su Li-wen (蘇麗文) 6-8. China's Liu Xiao Bo defeated Taiwan's Cheng Chiu-lung 9-5 while South Korea's Kim Jin-wook took gold in the men's under-80 category with a 7-5 win over China's Pan Dongdong.

ATHLETICS

Olympic gold medalist Xing Huina won the women's 5,000m race, when China ensured first-place in the East Asian Games athletics standings by winning five of the last eight finals.

Xing, who won the gold medal in the 10,000m in Athens, won here in 16 minutes, 4.56 seconds as China swept the first three gold medals.

Japan's Hiromi Ominami was second in 16:10.77 while South Korea's Bae Hae-jin took the bronze in 16:35.35.

China went into the final day of competition in athletics leading Japan by seven golds with eight events remaining. The Chinese finished the athletics competition with 26 golds, 10 ahead of Japan.

"The athletes from Japan have done well here," Xing said. "My condition wasn't the best and it was really hot out there but I knew it was important to go out and get the gold medal."

Xing ran alongside Ominami for almost the entire race. She slowed down at several stages but finished strong, crossing the line about 40m ahead of Ominami.

"I didn't have any intention to slow down," said Xing. "But when I noticed my competitor was coming up I was able to increase my speed."

Feng Yun got China started earlier with a win in the women's 100m hurdles.

Feng clocked a time of 13.09 seconds, finishing ahead of compatriot Su Yiping (13.44). Japan's Kumiko Ikeda was third in 13.45.

Zhang Qi won the shot put with 20.06m on his third attempt, beating Chinese compatriot Jia Peng by 1.22m. South Korea's Shon Hyun was third at 18.06.

Yuki Nakamura broke the Chinese sequence, giving Japan its first gold medal of the day in the men's 5,000m.

Nakamura, who won the 10,000m on Tuesday, clocked 14:05.77 in the shorter race, finishing ahead of teammate Tomohiro Seto in 14:16.44 and South Korea's Lee Du-haeng in 14:24.03.

"The 5,000m wasn't as good as the 10,000m," said Nakamura. "But my goal here was to win gold medals in both events so I was very happy. I didn't let the heat get to me and it was good to be running alongside Seto.''

Japan also won the men's 4x400m relay with Yuki Yamaguchi, Yosuke Inoue, Takayuki Koike and Yoshihiro Horigome combining for a time of 3:07.70. Taiwan took silver with a time of 3:09.06 followed by South Korea (3:12.10).

Kim Deokh-yeon won the men's triple jump with a Games record 16.79, giving South Korea its third gold of the track meet.

China also captured gold in the women's 4x400m relay. Xie Qing, Wang Xing, Tang Xiaoyin and Huang Xionxiao clocked a time of 3:33.59 to finish ahead of Japan (3:36.64) and Macau (4:05.61).

Wang Hailan gave China its fifth gold medal of the day, winning the heptathlon with 5,932 points. Japan's Yuki Nakata was second with 5,719 points followed by compatriot Chinami Yasuda, who had 5,292.

MACAO, Nov. 5 (Xinhuanet) -- Japan claimed three gold medals from its national sport of karatedo at the East Asian Games on Saturday.

Kasuga Wakabayashi won the women's individual kata title for her two straight wins in the three-people field. Macao's Cheung Pui Sui picked the silver with one win and Yip Ching Yee from Hong Kong got the bronze for her two losses.

Takashi Katada triumphed in the men's individual kata and Vong Ka Seng of Macao finished runner-up. The only other participant -Mallada Vicent Patrick Pablo - fouled out, losing a sure bet medal.

Natsuki Fujiwara walked away with a gold medal from the women's 53kg kumite and Macao's Kou Ma Ni grabbed the silver.

DPR Korean Ha Ryon-bok and South Korean Kim Jin were joint third.

Chinese Taipei landed two titles through Hsieh Cheng-kang in the men's 55kg-kumite and Huang Hsiang-chen in the men's 60kg kumite.

The host struck gold too, with Pereiracarion Paulacristina winning the women's 60kg kumite. Enditem

Chinese rowers have snatched four gold medals out of eight available at the East Asian Games in Macao.

China opened the first day of rowing with a triumph in the women's coxless pair event and continued to win the men's lightweight single sculls, men's coxless four and women's quadruple sculls.

DPR Korea lifted two golds from the men's double sculls and women's lightweight single sculls.

Japan won the men's lightweight double sculls.

(Xinhua)

Kei Igarashi scored 19 points to lead Japan to beat China 68-60 at the men's basketball semifinals at the East Asian Games in Macao.

Japan led the first quarter 17-14 and extended its lead to 35-27 at halftime. China cut the gap to five points after the third
quarter but failed to turn the tables and lost by eight points.

Igarashi was the game's top scorer and Tomoo Aminio added 16 with Shunsuke Ito putting in 10.

Yi Jianlian, an NBA prospect, scored 14 points to lead China, followed by Lu Xiaoming and Wang Shipeng with 10 apiece.

Japan is to the gold medal with the winner of Chinese Taipei-South Korean game.

(Xinhua)

When the explosive Korean martial art of taekwondo appeared at the East Asian Games, Korea dominated with six gold medals out of a possible eight.

When the two-day, 13-event karate competition began on Saturday, it was time for Japan to fight back - and they did just that in their own sport by taking four of the first seven gold medals on offer in the art of "empty-hand" combat.

Japan won both individual kata (forms) gold through Kasuga Wakabayashi (women) and Takashi Katada (men) and added two kumite (fighting) titles through Natsuki Fujiwara (women's under 53 kg) and Shion Kayahara (men's under 65 kg).

Kayahara overcame opponents from Korea and DPR Korea to win the gold medal, and said it was a team effort by Japan.

"It's the support of my team-mates and family that got me through, because the opponents were very strong and I couldn't afford to relax until it was over," said Kayahara.

"I am always very serious and meticulous in my training and competition, and I want to go on and win more championships in Japan."

Mongolia won their first gold medal of the fourth East Asian Games - and only their fifth gold in Games history - on Saturday.

The honour belonged to Munkhzul Tsogbadrakh, who claimed gold in the women's 10-metre air pistol final at Macau International Shooting Range.

The 24-year-old champion had a total of 484.3 points, ahead of Korea's Park Nam Suk (482.1) and Chinese Taipei's Tsai Chia Hui (481.8).

Mongolia have now won one gold, one silver (also in shooting) and six bronze, including one in shooting, to underline their quality in the range.

Olympic champion Jia Zhanbo added an East Asian Games gold medal to his collection on Saturday at Macau International Shooting Range.

The Athens Olympics gold medal-winner in the men's 50-metre rifle three positions showed he had lost none of his touch by taking the same discipline here.

Korea's Han Jin Seop, who had won the men's 50-metre rifle prone title earlier in the week, had to settle for silver this time, ahead of China's Zhang Fu.

Jia, who is one of three reigning Olympic champs in China's shooting team, along with Zhu Qinan and Du Li, said he always considered himself as his biggest opponent, and did not think about the scores of his rivals.

"It's a nice feeling to win a gold medal in such an excellent shooting range and in such a beautiful city," said Jia.

"I really appreciate the organisation of the East Asian Games."

Another Chinese shooter, Niu Zhiyuan, who won a bronze medal at the Sydney Olympics in the men's 10-metre running target, won an East Asian Games silver in the same discipline, behind compatriot Yang Ling.

Yang excelled with his first 30 shots, scoring 296 of a possible 300, and added a 97, 97 and 98 in the second round for a total of 588, two off the world record.

Japan's first gold medal of the shooting competition was provided by Tomohiro Kida in the men's 25-metre centre fire pistol. His winning score of 589 was even closer to the world record, just one off the 590 set by Afanasijs Kuzmins of the former Soviet Union in 1989.

"I won a gold medal in the national championships in Japan last year and was confident I could reproduce the same form," said Kida.

"I tried to concentrate more on my competition by reducing my practice time, and I have to thank my team-mates for their encouragement. They really inspired me."

China's princess of the pool, Wang Qun, has done it again.

The day after shocking Athens Olympic champion Luo Xuejuan in the women's 100 metres breaststroke final, the 13-year-old prospect added the 200-metre title to her East Asian Games collection on Saturday night.

Wang, who will not turn 14 until November 17, powered home in 2 minutes, 26.05 seconds, 2.33 seconds ahead of compatriot Luo Nan. Japan's Megumi Taneda won the bronze with a time of 2:29.24.

"It's my first international competition and I hope to attend more in the future," said Wang, from Shandong Province.

"Now I have to go back and train harder."

Another Chinese swimmer, Zeng Qiliang, set an Asian record in winning the men's 50-metre breaststroke in 27.83 seconds.

China now leads Japan 29-6 in gold medals with one day of the swimming remaining.

Japan claimed five of the 10 gold medals when dance sport made its East Asian Games debut at the Dome on Saturday. China won four and Korea one as the competitors added a dash of sparkle and razzmatazz to the proceedings.

Japan also won the first team gold, beating Korea 3-1 in the women's hockey final.

The finals of the men's and women's basketball, men's hockey and football will all be held on Sunday, the last day of the fourth East Asian Games.

Going into the final day, China have 120 gold medals and 210 in all, while Japan have 41 gold and 164 of all colours.

Macau won their 10th gold medal of the Games on Saturday, this time in karate-do, and Mongolia also took a gold at the shooting range, their first of the Games.

The remaining 18 of the 234 events will be decided Sunday, before the Closing Ceremony at Macau East Asian Games Dome Arena.

Continental's China team has chosen the East Asian Games period
to have a sales conference, simultaneously inviting importers and distributors from key provinces all over mainland China.

Continental AG of Hanover is not only an internationally active automotive supplier but also the world's fourth largest tyre manufacturer. The company is watching the development of the Chinese market with great interest, where in the next few years, Continental will be intensifying its activities substantially. To enhance its name recognition, Continental is sponsoring the fourth East Asian Games in Macau.

"Continental is sponsoring the East Asian Games, which will help boost our brand's popularity," says Robin Whittaker. "With nearly 4,000 participants from China (People's Republic, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau), Japan, Korea, Mongolia and Guam, the East Asian Games are of great significance in the economic region including China. With our involvement in the Games, we want to demonstrate that we are not concentrating our activities only globally, but at a regional and local level as well."

China's 'Great Wall' crumbles in Macau

Yi Jianlian shoots during China's game against Canada in Beijing, July 2004. 'Little Yao Ming' Yi Jianlian was controversially sent off as favourites China were dumped out of the East Asian Games basketball semis 68-60 by arch-rivals Japan.

'Little Yao Ming' Yi Jianlian was controversially sent off as favourites China were dumped out of the East Asian Games basketball semis 68-60 by arch-rivals Japan.
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The 212-centimetre (seven-foot) forward was leading China's comeback in the final quarter when he committed his fifth foul and received his marching orders from Slovakian referee Ladislav Janac, to the dismay of Saturday's partisan crowd.
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Japan led 35-27 at half-time and had a nine-point lead going into the final quarter. China cut the gap to five points with four minutes left but without Li, missed two vital scoring opportunities before Joji Takeuchi's three-pointer wrapped things up with 40 seconds to go.
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Li, 18, billed as the next big thing in Chinese basketball after Houston Rockets star Yao, top-scored for China with 14 points and four rebounds. Kei Igarashi got 19 for Japan.
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Taiwan beat South Korea 47-42 in the other semi and will meet Japan in the final on Sunday. — AFP

'Little Yao Ming' Yi Jianlian was controversially sent off as favourites China were dumped out of the East Asian Games basketball semis 68-60 by arch-rivals Japan.
.
The 212-centimetre (seven-foot) forward was leading China's comeback in the final quarter when he committed his fifth foul and received his marching orders from Slovakian referee Ladislav Janac, to the dismay of Saturday's partisan crowd.
.
Japan led 35-27 at half-time and had a nine-point lead going into the final quarter. China cut the gap to five points with four minutes left but without Li, missed two vital scoring opportunities before Joji Takeuchi's three-pointer wrapped things up with 40 seconds to go.
.
Li, 18, billed as the next big thing in Chinese basketball after Houston Rockets star Yao, top-scored for China with 14 points and four rebounds. Kei Igarashi got 19 for Japan.
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Taiwan beat South Korea 47-42 in the other semi and will meet Japan in the final on Sunday. — AFP
'Little Yao Ming' Yi Jianlian was controversially sent off as favourites China were dumped out of the East Asian Games basketball semis 68-60 by arch-rivals Japan.
.
The 212-centimetre (seven-foot) forward was leading China's comeback in the final quarter when he committed his fifth foul and received his marching orders from Slovakian referee Ladislav Janac, to the dismay of Saturday's partisan crowd.
.
Japan led 35-27 at half-time and had a nine-point lead going into the final quarter. China cut the gap to five points with four minutes left but without Li, missed two vital scoring opportunities before Joji Takeuchi's three-pointer wrapped things up with 40 seconds to go.
.
Li, 18, billed as the next big thing in Chinese basketball after Houston Rockets star Yao, top-scored for China with 14 points and four rebounds. Kei Igarashi got 19 for Japan.
.
Taiwan beat South Korea 47-42 in the other semi and will meet Japan in the final on Sunday.

MACAU (AP) - North Korea beat South Korea 2-0 in a soccer semifinal at the East Asian Games Saturday in a duel that both sides hope is one of their last amid hopes for a unified team at future Asian and Olympic Games.

In defeat, South Korean coach Park Ji-ho said he hopes the North will prevail in the final - a sign of warmed North-South relations in Macau, where the nations agreed in principle to field a single team at the 2006 Asian Games and 2008 Beijing Olympics.

"It's actually what all Koreans wish for, South Koreans and North Koreans ... It will happen," Park said through a translator.

Mingling between the North and South Koreans, however, is still limited, said Park.

In the North-South match Saturday, the South Koreans accounted for most of the early offence, but they were let down by Yoo Hyun's poor goalkeeping.

Yoo first lost his grip after blocking a long shot by North Korea's Kim Song Chol and narrowly avoided a follow through.

Yoo's loose handling cost him as he failed to hold a shot by North Korean captain Kim Yong Jun from the edge of the area, letting it slip by him for the North's first goal in the 29th minute.

Midfielder Ryang Yong Gi picked up a pass from the right and easily drove the ball past Yoo for a 2-0 lead soon after the halftime break.

In the final Sunday, North Korea will face China, which beat Japan 2-1. The two teams came out of the same group in preliminary play, during which North Korea beat China 3-1.

MACAU, China (AP) - Wang Qun's gold acquisitions here make her distinctive from other 13-year-old girls.

For a start, she had to take one gold medal from an Olympic champion.

Wang surprised everyone with an upset win over compatriot Luo Xuejuan on Friday in the women's 100-metre breaststroke at the East Asian Games. Luo won the same event at last year's Athens Olympics.

Wang, who will turn 14 on Nov. 17 and was making her debut on China's national team, captured her second gold medal of the games on Saturday, edging Luo Nan in the 200 breaststroke.

Despite her stunning wins, Wang was humble about her performance and in a hurry to get back into practice.

"I was surprised to win two gold medals," said Wang. "But I don't want to dwell on these results too much. The Olympics are a long way away and I've got a lot of work to do."

Wang didn't take part in October's national games and said that Luo's participation in that event may have caused fatigue, giving a young rookie a better chance at an upset.

"I think she was a bit tired," said Wang. "Still, I'm happy with the gold medal."

Luo, who won the 50 breaststroke on Wednesday and complained of stomach problems in the 100, put a positive spin on her surprising defeat.

"I'm not disappointed at all," said the 21-year-old Luo. "In fact, I'm happy that one of our younger swimmers can win the gold. It's good for China."

China didn't win any swimming events at recent world championships in Montreal and managed only five medals overall. Luo's gold was China's only swimming win at Athens.

The country's swimming program is still in the rebuilding phase after 32 Chinese swimmers were entangled in doping offences in the 1990s.

But with young swimmers like Wang, the prospects are looking bright for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Among other rising stars is 15-year-old Yang Jieqiao, who clinched both the 400-and 800-metre freestyle finals at the national games.

Wang led Friday's race from start to finish, punching the air with her fist when she saw the result on the scoreboard.

China has dominated the swimming event here, winning 29 gold medals to just six for Japan so far.

Rank Country Gold Silver Bronze Total
1 China 120 59 31 210
2 Japan 41 52 71 164
3 South Korea 29 46 59 134
4 Chinese Taipei 11 28 26 65
5 Macau 10 16 16 42
6 North Korea 6 9 18 33
7 Hong Kong 2 2 8 12
8 Mongolia 1 1 6 8
9 Guam 0 0 1 1

The fourth East Asian Games has brought the people of Macau together, and provided a legacy for the future, according to organising chief Manuel Silverio.

Speaking at a press conference on Sunday, the chairman of the board of directors of the 4th Macau East Asian Games Organising Committee (MEAGOC) said this was "the true essence and significance" of the event.

"I believe the success of the Games will have a long-term positive effect on Macau, on our future," said Silverio.

"It has certainly provided us with a long list of legacies to meet more opportunities and challenges, while promoting the multi-faceted development of Macau."

Silverio was speaking on the last day of the nine-day competition, which has featured athletes from nine National Olympic Committees.

Commenting on the spectacular opening ceremony on October 29, Silverio added: "The opening ceremony was a successful start to the Games and best demonstrated the culture and characteristics of Macau. It reflects the enthusiasm of the participants as well as that of the people of Macau."

The Macau Special Administrative Region Government spent around 3 billion patacas on sports venues, including 640 million patacas (US$80 million) on the Macau East Asian Games Dome. The facilities will be handed over to four government departments after the Games.

"We have invested a lot but we have effectively enhanced the international profile of Macau through TV exposure, media, the nine NOCs and guests. People around the world better understand our capability to stage such big events, and this can pave the way for conventions, exhibitions and meetings as well as more international sports events," said Silverio.

"They are very favourable for our further development, and essential if we are to become an international city."

Silverio said he would give the Games a 90 per cent pass mark, while admitting it would be "irresponsible" to suggest Macau could not learn and improve.

"What we have been doing is trying to be as flexible and responsive as possible and trying to provide a solution for all requirements," he added.

China has pledged to continue supporting the East Asian Games by sending leading athletes, despite dominating the medals standing in Macau.

The Deputy Chef de Mission of China's 560-strong delegation, Cui Dalin, told a press conference on Sunday that the East Asian Games had provided his athletes with valuable experience on the road to the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008.

While acknowledging that other countries had not sent their top athletes, notably Japan in swimming, he vowed to keep sending a strong China team to the East Asian Games.

"The reason why China is winning by a large number of medals is because the Chinese athletes are taking these Games very seriously. It's a very important chance to prepare for the 2008 Olympic Games, and also we want to show our support for the Macau SAR government and the organizing committee," said Cui.

"Overall I am satisfied with China's performance here, and after these East Asian Games we are even more confident about our performance at the 2008 Olympic Games. We are better prepared.

"Thanks to mutual development and exchange, we have seen an increase in the level of all athletes in East Asia, and we are looking forward to a successful East Asian Games in Hong Kong in 2009."

Cui said he had seen young athletes emerge, such as Wang Qun in the women's breaststroke, but acknowledged China still lagged behind Japan in swimming, as the Japanese did not send their top athletes such as double Olympic champion Kosuke Kitajima in the men's breaststroke and women's freestyler Ai Shibata.

"We clearly understand we still have much to learn from our Japanese counterparts," he said.

"In diving, we need to do some soul-searching and must learn from this experience, and find out if it was skill or psychological. There is never any team that can win for ever."

Cui added that China could learn from Macau in how to involve the "energy and power" of the public in staging a multi-sports event, and praised the local people as "ambassadors of friendship."

Macau Olympic Committee member Antonio Fernandes has hailed his delegation's record East Asian Games medals haul as a "brilliant performance".

And he appealed for the support of Macau's parents to allow their children to develop their sports skills to keep the medals flowing in the future.

"All of the citizens of Macau will be proud of the delegation," Fernandes told a press conference on Sunday.

"We sent a delegation to compete in 16 sports with the aim to write down a remarkable chapter in Macau's sports history.

"Before the Games I said I was confident Macau would surpass the total number of medals won at previous East Asian Games, but the result we have achieved is beyond our expectation."

Macau had won just one gold and five bronze medals in the three previous editions, but surpassed this tally in spectacular style.

Fernandes said the next step was to identify young talent in Macau's primary and secondary schools and develop it, but this required the support of the family.

"We want to encourage them more and encourage the parents to allow their children to play up their talents, because without the support of their parents they cannot get fully involved."

Fernandes also spoke of his concern that the Macau athletes appeared weaker physically than their East Asian rivals, and said the medical authorities needed to pay attention.

"I hope our younger generation can have a stronger physique so they can be prepared for their future. I hope we can thrive in the future despite adversity, such as the physical build," he said.

Here's a few facts and figures about the East Asian Games:

6,718 athletes and officials, guests, technical delegates and media.

1 world record and seven Asian records, and 163 athletes or teams have broken 48 Games records

139 urine samples sent to Beijing for analysis by doping control

1,247 media, including 788 from broadcasting

28,272 people involved in the Games

171,905 meals served

24,643 room nights (60 per cent occupancy of all Macau hotels)

40,000 litres of gasoline for VIP transportation

Taiwan's men will meet Japan in the final of the East Asian Games basketball tournament today after Taiwan downed South Korea 61-48 and Japan upset NBA prospect Yi Jianlian and his Chinese lineup 68-60 in a semifinal shocker yesterday.

For all its might on the track and in the pool, it was men's basketball where China was most expected to showcase its regional dominance.

But Japan, which suffered a 70-57 loss to China in the round-robin stage of the event, capitalized when Yi had early foul trouble, and Kei Igarashi had a game-high 19 points in the impressive win.

Yi, who scored 14, had three fouls early and was restricted to 25 minutes against Japan.

The crowd booed loudly when Yi had an offensive foul called on him, ending his game with five minutes to go.

"My defense was a little slow so I fouled," said Yi, and 18-year-old forward widely tipped to follow the giant footsteps of Houston Rockets Chinese import Yao Ming.

China "played very well, but erratic. We were better today. That is very simple," said Japan coach Ladislav Janac.

In the women's final, also today, Taiwan takes on China.

After the morning session on the penultimate day, China had 106 gold medals and 181 overall. Japan had 28 and South Korea had 27.

Meanwhile, about 12 hours after upstaging Olympic champion Luo Xuejuan in her favored event - the 100-meter breaststroke - 13-year-old Wang Qun was back in heats of the 200 breaststroke yesterday, aiming for a second gold medal.

Luo, who won the 100 breaststroke at Athens, had complained of being sick before the final, but still earmarked Wang as a future star.

Wang qualified third fastest for the 200 breaststroke final behind Japan's Megumi Taneda and China teammate Luo Nan.

China won 7-of-8 swimming finals on the second and third nights of competition, and led the swimming standings with 20 gold to Japan's five.

With only 16 swimming finals remaining on the weekend, Japan's standing as the top swimming nation in the region is certain to be usurped, although most of Japan's top swimmers didn't travel to Macau and even the Chinese swimmers have said the outcome doesn't reflect the true level of competition.

MACAU, China (AP) -- North Korea beat South Korea 2-0 in a soccer semifinal at the East Asian Games Saturday in a duel that both sides hope is one of their last amid hopes for a unified team at future Asian and Olympic Games.

In defeat, South Korean coach Park Ji-ho said he hopes the North will prevail in the final -- a sign of warmed North-South relations in Macau, where the nations agreed in principle to field a single team at the 2006 Asian Games and 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Park said he welcomes the idea of a joint soccer team.

"It's actually what all Koreans wish for, South Koreans and North Koreans ... It will happen," Park said through a translator.

Mingling between the North and South Koreans, however, is still limited, said Park.

In the North-South match Saturday, the South Koreans accounted for most of the early offense, but they were let down by Yoo Hyun's poor goalkeeping. Yoo first lost his grip after blocking a long shot by North Korea's Kim Song Chol and narrowly avoided a follow through.

Yoo's loose handling cost him as he failed to hold a shot by North Korean captain Kim Yong Jun from the edge of the area, letting it slip by him for the North's first goal in the 29th minute.

Midfielder Ryang Yong Gi picked up a pass from the right and easily drove the ball past Yoo for a 2-0 lead soon after the halftime break.

Ryang, who plays for Vegalta Sendai in the second division of Japan's domestic J-League, said facing the South presented problems.

"There was a lot more pressure here. We played well for 90 minutes," the North Korean midfielder said. He didn't make comment on the push for a unified Korean team.

South Korea coach Park said his side comprises inexperienced university students and that he knew the North was a better squad. He said his players got nervous after the North's first goal.

Details of the North-South joint teams still need to be sorted out, with officials from both countries meeting on December 7 to work out logistics of selection and training.

The proposed deal raises the issue of whether the joint teams will draw from each side on merit, or if each side will be allocated the equal number of spaces.

Park said generally speaking, he thinks South Korean soccer players are more skilled because the South has a professional league, but that any joint team should draw an equal number of players from each side.

North Korea's strength lies in its cohesiveness as a highly-trained unit.

The Koreas have been divided since 1945, and the two sides fought a three-year war in the 1950s.

Signs of the division are hide to disguise. When players from both sides lined up for their respective national anthems. The South Koreans, in red, hand on chest, titled sideways away from their northern counterparts when their anthem was played first.

Likewise, the players from the North, in white, titled away from the South Koreans when the North's anthem was played.

But the two sides appeared to be cordial toward each other in Saturday's match, with players consoling each other after collisions and the North kicking the ball out of bounds to stop play when a player from the South was hurt.

In the final Sunday, North Korea will face China, which beat Japan 2-1. The two teams came out of the same group in preliminary play, during which North Korea beat China 3-1.

China's women's basketball team rebounded from a round-robin loss to Chinese Taipei to beat the same team in the final at Tap Seac Multisport Pavilion on Sunday.

With the help of 19 points from Zhang Fan, China won 71-67 to take the gold medal.

Chinese Taipei had stunned China 79-56 in the second round of the group stage.

In the men's event, Chinese Taipei took the gold medal by beating Japan 60-55 in the final.

The red-hot favourites came through in the men's hockey final on Sunday when Korea shut out China 3-0.

The Koreans had always been tipped to win the gold medal due to their high world ranking and made no mistake in group play, winning all five games with a goal difference of 29 (36 scored, seven conceded).

Those results included an 8-0 victory over China, but in the final Korea had to settle for three goals to take the gold medal.

The previous day, Korea had lost the women's final 3-1 to Japan.

Macau added a second gold medal in the karatedo competition on the last day of the East Asian Games on Sunday.

In the men's kumite over 75 kg contest, 19-year-old Cheong Chi Un defeated Lin Huan Wei of Chinese Taipei 11-6.

Cheung said he had switched from athletics to karate, and this had prepared him mentally and physically for the challenges ahead.

"My success is due to the efforts of many people, not only myself," he said.

"I am lucky to be chosen by my coach to take part in this event. I have been working hard and practising all along.

"I want to thank the Macao SAR government, the Karate-do Association, my coach and team-mates, Haojiang middle school and my supporters. If I were to be chosen to take part in more competitions, I would work harder."

It was Macau's 11th gold medal of the Games.

The two-day, 12-event karate tournament at the IPM Multisport Pavilion ended with Japan at the top of the medals table with eight gold, and Chinese Taipei and Macau with two each.

Finishing with a flourish and the gold medal in football, China ended the fourth edition of the East Asian Games with a grand total of 127 gold medals, 63 silver and 33 bronze for a massive haul of 223.

Japan finished runner-up for the fourth consecutive time in the regional multi-sports event, with 46 gold, 56 silver and 77 bronze for 179.

Korea completed the "big three" with 145 medals, comprised of 32 gold, 48 silver and 65 bronze. On the last day, Korea won two swimming gold to break up the China-Japan duopoly in the pool.

Although China won 33 swimming gold compared to Japan's seven, China appreciated that Japan still ruled the waves and that they had a lot to learn from the Japanese when at full strength.

In the football final at Macau Stadium, China beat DPR Korea 1-0 with a second-half goal from midfielder Chen Tao.

Host Macau completed the nine-day competition in fifth place of the nine teams, with 11 gold, 16 silver and 17 bronze - a total of 44 and in stark contrast to the combined total of one gold and five bronze won in three previous editions.

Macau said a fond farewell to the East Asian Games in a moving closing ceremony at the Macau East Asian Games Dome Arena on Sunday night.

The Chief Executive of the Macau SAR Government, Edmund Ho Hau Wah, declared the 4th East Asian Games closed, and the flag and flame were handed over to the president of the Hong Kong National Olympic Committee, Timothy Fok, ready for the 2009 edition.

In his farewell address, the chairman of MEAGOC, Manuel Silverio, declared: "A new era for Macau and the region has begun!

"The successful organisation of the Games has affirmed our effort and highlighted Macau's autonomy and capability to the world. Thank you for this wonderful experience."

Silverio said the Games had presented Macau "with more opportunities and greater prospects, and, with renewed confidence, we are ready to meet more future challenges."

He added: "Following more than five years of dedicated work, our collective effort and your full participation have made this into a wonderful reality. Cherishing this great experience, we embrace the future with confidence and further commitment."

After the Chief Executive declared the Games closed, the big screen in the Arena showed the flame in the cauldron at Macau Stadium slowly fading away, and the audience was then surprised to see a young boy emerge from the stands on wires and sail down to the stage with the lantern.

After the athletes from the nine NOCs had left the arena, a three-part cultural performance entertained the guests and visitors alike.

Under the chapters "Lotus in Breeze", "Harmonious Wind of East Asia" and "A Date in the Near Future", it featured a colourful and theatrical interpretation of traditional songs from the nine competing countries and regions.

The words of Eddie Laam Wah Ying, president of the East Asian Games Association, said it all¡K

"See you in 2009 at the 5th East Asian Games in Hong Kong!"

Rank Country Gold Silver Bronze Total
1 China 127 63 33 223
2 Japan 46 56 77 179
3 South Korea 32 48 65 145
4 Chinese Taipei 12 34 26 72
5 Macau 11 16 17 44
6 North Korea 6 10 20 36
7 Hong Kong 2 2 9 13
8 Mongolia 1 1 6 8
9 Guam 0 0 1 1

MACAU (AP) - Glasgow Celtic defender Du Wei said Sunday his loyalty to China always comes first after wrapping up a weeklong stint in Macau where he led his side to gold at the East Asian Games.

"If the national team calls me up, I will come back no matter what," Du said after China beat North Korea 1-0 in the final. "When I play abroad, I represent China first and I hope to come back and play in these kinds of competitions often and play for my country."

Du's comments came after his comments Thursday that he thought his presence in Macau would damage his European career "to a certain extent."

The 23-year-old Du, who signed with Celtic in August, is on the cusp of breaking into the Scottish club's first team. But China coach Zhu Guanghu said Celtic was supportive of his decision to draft Du.

"They also hope Du Wei has more competition experience," Zhu said after the final.

Zhu said his choices were limited because of an age limit for the soccer event at the Macau games.

The Chinese coach said Du, who captained the Chinese squad in Macau, benefited from his time with Celtic and "played a key and central role in our team."

Zhu encouraged more Chinese players to play overseas. "If we have more players who can play abroad in the five major leagues like Du, I think our soccer standards will improve more quickly."

MACAU -- China won four of the last seven swimming finals Sunday to finish the East Asian Games meet with 33 gold medals, erasing Japan's reputation as the regional power in the pool.

Across all 17 sports and with only the soccer final remaining at Macau, China had 126 gold medals and 221 overall -- a massive lead over Japan, with 46 gold and 177 overall.

South Korea had 32 gold and 145 overall, while Macau picked up a karate title to move level with Taiwan on 11 gold medals.

Japan, ranked third in swimming at last year's Athens Olympics, had seven swimming gold medals here, including one on the final day.

The Japanese couldn't repeat their performance in the basketball semifinal upset over China, going down 60-55 to Taiwan in Sunday's final.

The Chinese women's basketball team made amends for the stunning loss by their male compatriots, beating Taiwan 71-67 in the other gold medal match.

Meanwhile, the Chinese men almost missed out on the bronze.

Only this time, NBA prospect Yi Jianlian was on court to salvage a 72-70 win over South Korea, swiveling under the basket as he scored the winning points.

South Korea's Lee Kwang-jae had missed twice from the free-throw line with the scores locked 70-70 and 14 seconds to go.

Wang Shipeng had a game-high 30 points for China and Yi -- who was fouled out in the semifinal loss -- had seven points, 10 rebounds and three blocks.

The Chinese avenged the basketball upset with a stoppage time 2-1 win over Japan in the soccer, with Glasgow Celtic defender Du Wei scoring the winner to lead his side into Sunday's final against North Korea.

That is the last of 234 gold medals on offer over nine days.

The North had a 2-0 win over South Korea in the first major head-to-head contest since both agreed here to form a single team for the Asian Games and 2008 Olympics.

Wrapping up in the pool, Cai Li won the 50 freestyle in 22.85 and Japan's Takeshi Matsuda edged China's Wu Peng to win the men's 200 butterfly in 1:56.72.

Matsuda, the Asian record holder in the 400 freestyle, returned 10 minutes after the butterfly for his favored event but finished off the pace in third, behind Park Tae-hwan of South Korea.

The South Koreans picked up their second swimming gold when Jung Jiyeon won their women's 400 medley in 4:43.29, edging teammate Nam Yoo-sun.

China's two women's gold medalists on Sunday were Yang Jieqiao in the 800 and the medley relay team.

In the last event, China led Japan and South Korea into the wall. The teams finished the swimming program in that order, and will finish the East Asian Games in that order.

Among the swimmers to shine as China asserted itself in swimming was 13-year-old Wang Qun, who collected a 100-200 double in the women's breaststroke, including an upset over Olympic gold medalist Luo Xuejuan in the 100.

Cai Dalin, deputy head of China's delegation, said the Chinese used the games to train young athletes, and get used to new rules in some competitions like shooting and gymnastics ahead of the Beijing Olympics.

He identified Wang and Zhang Lin, who won the men's 1,500-meters in an Asian record and the added the 200 freestyle gold medal, as some of China's brightest hopes.

Zhang "lets us see China's hopes in the long-distance swimming events in 2008," Cui said.

Despite China's stellar performance here, Cui said China's overall standard in swimming still lagged behind that of Japan, which didn't field its strongest swimmers.

"Even though China won more gold medals ... we know clearly there's still a gap between China's swimming and Japan's," he said.

Organizers in Macau said the high cost of staging a major multisports event for the first time was repaid in gold.

Macau, a coastal gambling enclave of less than a half million people just west of Hong Kong, had netted only one gold in three previous trips to the East Asian Games.

It started here on a roll, winning three gold medals on the opening morning and 10 overall.

Organizing committee chairman Manuel Silverio said the cost, estimated at 3.8 billion Macau patacas (US$476 million), was worth it.

"The fourth East Asian Games have fully raised Macau's international recognition," Silverio said Sunday. (AP)

November 6, 2005

Taiwan beat Mongolia 107-70 in its last preliminary game to finish 5-1 and No.2 in the prelim and will meet No.3 seed South Korea in the East Asian Games semifinal today. No.1 seed China will meet No.4 japan in the other semifinal.

Chou Shih-yuan scored team-high 20 points. Yang Chin-ming added 19 points. Yang Che-yi had 13 and Tien Lei had 12 points.

Taiwan beat South Korea 75-56 in the preliminary game.

Hong Kong beat Macau 66-61 and finished for fifth place with a 2-5 record. Mongolia(1-6) is sixth and host Macau(0-7) finished last place.

Taiwan women's NT will play for gold in the EAG final vs. China.

MACAU, China (Yonhap) ? North Korea beat South Korea 2- 0 to advance to the soccer finals in the 4th East Asian Games under way in Macau Saturday.

South Korean goal keeper Yoo Hyun fumbled at a weak shot by North Korean captain Kim Yongjun in the 27th minute to concede the first goal. Ryang Yonggi, an ethnic Korean who plays for Japanese J-league Sendai, made it 2-0 shortly after the second half started.

“Whichever team comes to the final, I am confident that we can beat them,” Ryang said after the match.

“I’m happy to score the second goal. The South Koreans did well, but we did one or two steps better than they.”


11-06-2005 20:52

CHINA'S dominating performance in the pool at the East Asian Games in Macau was a boost to the nation's swimming program with three years to go until the Beijing Olympics.

China won four of the last seven swimming finals yesterday to finish the meet with 33 gold medals. It was an encouraging sign after China failed to win any swimming events at world championships in Montreal, Canada, in July and just one in last year's Athens Olympics.

Japan, ranked third in swimming in Athens, didn't bring any of its top swimmers to Macau but still managed seven golds with a squad of young and inexperienced swimmers.

China's swimming program is still in the recovery and rebuilding phase after 32 Chinese swimmers were entangled in doping offenses in the 1990s.

Judging from the results here, the recovery is almost complete.

Luo Xuejuan, the 100-meter breaststroke champion from Athens, was the only Olympic gold medalist in China's swim squad in Macau.

Most promising for China was the performance of tiny 13-year-old Wang Qun, who won gold medals in both the 200 breaststroke and the 100 breaststroke, where she upstaged Luo.

Luo, who won the 50 breaststroke several days before her loss to Wang, said the future looks bright for China.

"I'm happy that some of our younger swimmers can win the gold," said Luo after Wang's stunning win. "It's good for China."

Ouyang Kunpeng completed a personal treble on Saturday by winning the 100 backstroke to go with his earlier wins in the 50- and 200-meter events.

Ouyang rejected the notion that he got a break because he didn't have to go up against Japan's best. "Even if Japan's best athletes were here, I still think that I would have won all three."

Zhang Lin won the gold medal in the men's 1,500 freestyle and the men's 200 freestyle.

Despite China's performance in Macau, deputy head of the Chinese delegation Cui Dalin said the country's overall standard still lagged behind that of Japan.

"Even though China won more gold medals in swimming than Japan, we know clearly there's still a gap between China's swimming and Japan's," he said.

The Associated Press

MACAO, Nov. 6 (Xinhuanet) -- Takeshi Matsuda revived sluggish Japanese swimming by clinching his second gold medal from the men's 200m butterfly here on Sunday.

He said after the race that the East Asian Games was worth a trip because they could meet vigorous Chinese swimmers.

Matsuda beat Chinese Wu Peng by clocking one minute and 56.79 seconds, a new games record. He had defeated Wu at the Montreal world championships for a silver medal on July.

Matsuda took the men's 800m freestyle title three days ago and extended his good form in the 200m butterfly.

"I went neck by neck with Wu Peng in the first 100 meters, thenI surged ahead in the last 50 meters to touch the wall ahead of Wu," said the Japanese.

"Wu Peng is a rival I has raced against all through my career. I count him as my arch opponent especially in Asian races. He got an upper hand in the 2002 Asian Games and I was better at Montreal.I didn't want to lose to him here."

Matsuda said the Macao Games was a valuable experience.

"I hadn't expected so many good swimmers," he said. "I didn't think too much about this games before I actually came, but I guess I would have regretted if I had not come."

Wu Peng took only one gold medal from three events he entered and said he needed a break.

"I am exhausted," he said. "I competed in 19 races in eight events in the national games last month and won four gold medals.

"I felt tired while swimming here. Matsuda's clocking isn't asgood as his world championships time. I would have won the race ifI hadn't been so tired." Enditem

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Gold: 127, silver: 63, bronze: 33. That means, more than half of the golds and almost one-third of all the medals on offer.

That should be enough for China's Chef-de-mission Cui Dalin to feel happy. And that is exactly what he felt yesterday when he said: "All the athletes gave off their best and their overall performance was encouraging for us."

China's performance in Macao was their best at the East Asian Games. They won 213 medals (105 golds, 74 silvers and 34 bronzes) in Shanghai; 185 (62, 59 and 64) in Busan, Republic of Korea (ROK); and 193 (85, 48 and 58) in Osaka, Japan.

On the international stage, the Athens Olympics were their best. Only the United States, with 35, got more than their 32 gold medals. And 12 of those gold medallists were seen in action in Macao, which also had their largest delegation (396 athletes and 144 officials).

Most of their athletes were in top form even though the Macao Games happened just six days after the 10th National Games in Nanjing. And true to their capability, they broke one world and eight Asian records, though some star athletes performed below par. Weightlifter Yang Lian rewrote the clear-and-jerk world record in the women's 48kg.

Cui explained China's dominance thus: "The reason China won a large number of medals is because our athletes took the Games very seriously... We wanted to show our support to the Macao Special Administrative Region and the East Asian Games Organizing Committee (MEAGOC), so we tried to make sure the athletes performed at the top level."

In the run-up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, China brought a lot of young athletes to Macao. They are willing to sacrifice even some champions to guarantee a dazzling show before a patriotic and increasingly sports-crazy home crowd during the Olympics.

Among the young athletes, 286 didn't have any international experience before coming to Macao. But even then many of them proved too strong for their opponents.

"For us, Macao was an important rehearsal for the Beijing Olympics and the young athletes," Cui said. "We are delighted to see they are maturing into great sportsmen. I believe they are the hopefuls for the Olympics."

China looked invincible in their favourite sports as they won 13 golds in weightlifting, 30 in swimming and nine-of-ten golds in diving. They also showed their prowess in athletics (30 golds), wushu (13 golds) and shooting (7 golds).

China got a surprising 81 more golds than their arch rivals Japan, and 95 more than ROK. Cui, however, said the medals' tally was not truly representative of the Asian trio's strength.

"The East Asian Games doesn't have some of their favourite sports such as judo, wrestling and archery," he said. "Also, they didn't send some of their best athletes for some reason or the other. So I don't think it's time for us to drown in celebration."

Cui said Macao saw the birth of some young talents such as Wang Qun in the women's breaststroke. But he conceded that China was still behind Japan in swimming. Things would have been a little different had Japan sent their top athletes such as double Olympic champion Kosuke Kitajima (men's breaststroke) and Ai Shibata (women's freestyle).

"We know we still have a lot to learn from our Japanese counterparts," he said. "In diving, we need to do some soul-searching and must learn from this experience, and find out if it was skill or psychology that brought us the medals. There's no team that can win for ever."

Praising the Macao East Asian Games Organizing Committee (MEAGOC), Cui said: "They did an excellent job, in hospitality, accommodation, stadium and everything else... I believe we can draw some experience from them for the Beijing Olympics."

"Thanks to mutual development and exchange, we have seen an increase in the level of athletes in East Asia, and we are looking forward to a successful East Asian Games in Hong Kong in 2009."

Source: China Daily

Count the medals and the 4th East Asian Games will be China's. But it's Macao who have more reason to celebrate. Not only did they host the Games, but also put in a spectacular performance to make them their best ever.

"Brilliant" is how Macao Olympic Committee member Antonio Fernandes described the enclave's performance. "All of the people of Macao will be proud of the delegation," Fernandes told a press conference yesterday.

But, he said, Macao needs the support of parents to make it a sports power, at least in East Asia. For, without their help the children cannot develop into star performers.

"We competed in 16 sports (soft tennis being the only exception) with the aim to rewrite Macao's East Asian Games history... Before the Games I was confident Macao would surpass the total number of medals won at the earlier Games. But the final result is just fantastic, beyond our expectations."

Macao had won just one gold and five bronzes in the three earlier Games. But this time they won 11 golds, 16 silvers and 17 bronzes to outdo all their earlier efforts put together.

Fernandes said the next step was to identify young talents in Macao in its primary and secondary schools and train them into champions. But for that the support of their families was supreme.

"We want to encourage the parents. And, in turn, we want the parents to encourage their children to let their potential blossom because without their support the children cannot develop into champions."

Fernandes spoke about his worries, too. Macao athletes, he said, appeared physically weaker than their opponents. This is something the medical authorities need to pay attention to.

"I hope our younger generation can be physically stronger so they can be ready for the future. I hope we can make a difference on the sports filed despite our shortcomings like the physical build," he said.

Source: China Daily

Karate-do came to an electrifying end at the Games yesterday, with Japan and Macao capping off an exciting day and providing spectators enough action to remember for some time to come.

Hong Kong, too, had something to celebrate, with its men's team of Lee Chi-kit, Chang King-man, and Pang Fu-wa winning the bronze in kata.

The ancient martial art introduced to the world by Japan is also a source of national pride for the country. And for good reason, as their mercurial coach Maeda Toshiaki said, "Japan plays to win."

Win they did, with emphatic victories in the team kata finals, in which their women's team exhibited superior style and perfect synchronization. They outperformed Chinese Taipei, despite their spirited showing, to take the gold. Their men's team, too, gave a scintillating display, punctuated by explosive flying kicks and punches, to again beat their Chinese Taipei to the gold.

In the premier event of the afternoon, Macao's Cheong Chiun made a remarkable comeback to snatch the gold against Chinese Taipei's Lin Huan-wei in the men's over 75kg kumite final.

Cheered by a partisan crowd, Cheong got the first point with a sharp jab to Lin's side. But no sooner had the two returned to the starting line that Lin unleashed a brutal front kick that sent Cheong flying to the mat, leaving him dazed for more than a minute.

But Cheong recovered to counter Lin's aggressive thrusts. In fact, his comeback seemed almost movie-like, considering that his opponent was bigger. In fact, the end result was almost unbelievable - 11:6. And the crowd erupted in a wild applause when the buzzer went on.

Chinese Taipei's nightmare continued as Japan swept the field in the other events. In the men's under-70kg kumite final, Nagaki Shinji fought aggressively from the start to score a 5-1 victory over Hsu Hsiang-ming.

Matsuhisa Ko proved too quick and powerful for Huang Hao-yun in the men's under-75kg kumite final. He countered Huang's aggressive attacks to score a convincing 5-3 win after the Taipei fighter had taken an early lead.

The day's tally: Japan four golds, Macao one. Chinese Taipei, runners-up in all the events for five silvers. The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) won two bronzes to Macao's and Hong Kong's one each.

Source: China Daily

BEIJING: China grabbed more than half the gold medals on offer at the East Asian Games in Macau but the most gratifying of those 127 victories came on Sunday when the men’s team beat North Korea 1-0 in the soccer final.

“It is the first time that China has won a men’s soccer title at an international multi-sports event,” state-run Xinhua news agency said of the victory in the event billed as a dress rehearsal for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. China had already lost to North Korea in the group stages, but set up a gold-medal rematch after edging Japan 2-1 in the semi-finals.

Chinese officials, however, were quick play down the significance of the country’s victories over regional rivals Japan and South Korea and the six other nations and territories taking part in the nine-day event. “We sent our top athletes to Macau because we regard this as a very important rehearsal for the 2008 Olympics,” Cui Dalin, China’s deputy head of mission, was quoted as saying by Xinhua.

“Japan and South Korea didn’t send their best.” China dominated most of the Olympic sports contested in Macau, with the nation’s athletes shining on the track, taking 26 of the 45 golds on offer. While the games were great news for China, residents of Macau have raised questions about the cost, which chief organiser Manuel Silverio has put at about $500 million, equal to almost one quarter of the island territory’s revenues in 2004.

But Xinhua argued that the event, largely ignored outside East Asia, was worth it. “By hosting the games, Macau has presented itself as more than a gambling enclave, and with 11 gold medals to its credit, the city of 470,000 dwellers has gone some way to challenging its reputation as a sporting nobody,” Xinhua said.

The biggest news of the fourth East Asian Games came on Tuesday, when long-time political and sporting rivals South and North Korea agreed to compete as a single team at the 2006 Asian Games and at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. reuters

MACAU — So much for a gradual step in China’s preparations for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. It was more like a great leap.

After a surprise start with tiny host Macau winning three of the first gold medals, China dominated the nine-day East Asian Games, winning 127 gold medals and 223 overall across 17 sports.

Closest rivals Japan and South Korea were way behind with 46 and 32 gold medals respectively. The others among the nine nations and territories competing had few chances to upstage the Chinese juggernaut.

China’s stated aim is to top the medal standings at the Olympics it will host for the first time in about 1000 days.

If it’s anything like the Games construction programme — organisers were asked by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to slow down because venues would be built and being used too early — China’s sports programme is way ahead of schedule.

Yet there are few signs of slowing down. China brought the strongest team to Macau, including 11 Olympic gold medalists, and had most athletes coming off a preparation that peaked for last month’s national games.

The aim now is to have the athletes taper along similar time frames to the venues: prepared in advance and experienced in international events, but with time to finesse and fine-tune in the months and weeks before the Beijing Games.

China impressed in the pool, where it challenged Japan’s status as the regional swimming force. The Chinese won 33 gold medals to seven for Japan.

However, Olympic medalists Kosuke Kitajima, Ai Shibata and Takashi Yamamoto were missing from the squad that helped Japan to the No3 ranking in Athens last year. Cui Dalin, deputy head of China’s delegation, said the Chinese used these games as a testing ground for young athletes ahead of the Beijing Games. He highlighted swimmers Zhang Lin and 13-year-old Wang Qun as China’s bright hopes.

Zhang won the men’s 1500m and 200m freestyle events, while Wang upset Olympic champion Luo Xuejuan in the 100m women’s breaststroke, as well as winning the 200m breaststroke. Sapa-AFP

Athletes from around East Asia have just concluded their regional version of the Olympics in Macao. Sports Scenes' Zhou Lei was on the spot to witness Sunday's closing ceremony that lowered the curtain for the nine-day event, which was the biggest sporting gala the Special Administrative Region has ever hosted.

After 9 days of intense competition, the 4th East Asian Games bid farewell to host-city Macao. The closing ceremony was held Sunday in the city's East Asian Games Dome Arena.

At this ceremony, as the Macao SAR flag came down, the flag of the Hong Kong SAR was raised and the flame of the 4th East Asian Games was extinguished. The banner now passes to Hong Kong, host of the games in four years' time.

Following the formal ceremony, there was dancing and acrobatics, songs about friendship and unity among the nine participating countries and regions and a cheerful gathering of athletes and their young supporters.

The ceremony highlighted peace and harmony in East Asia, which is what the East Asian Games is all about. Athletes from 9 East Asian countries and regions shared 715 golds. More importantly they shared in the spirit of the regional games. The event also left Macao with a precious legacy that will benefit the region for years to come.

The slogan of the Macao East Asian Games was "New East, New Era, Let's all join the Games." The slogan points to the energy and hopes of East Asia for a new era of peace and regional prosperity. In four years time in Hong Kong, we'll meet again at the 2009 East Asian Games to celebrate once again.