China dominant in first day of swimming at Asiad
3/12/2006 12:17
Chinese teenager Wu Peng struck a brilliant victory to grab the men's 200m
butterfly title under the pressure of two strong Japanese rivals as China
dominated the swimming pool yesterday in Asian Games.
China seized five out
of six gold medals on offer on the first day of the swimming competition at the
15th Games and Japan had one to their name.
World championships bronze
medalist Wu came from behind to win in his personal best of one minute 54.91,
beating East Asian Games winner Takeshi Matsuda (1:55.49) and Ryuichi Shibata
(1:56.44) to the second and third places.
Wu had fallen behind until the last
50 meters, which, as the 19- year-old said, was a plan.
"I studied video
about their competition and found out that the two Japanese swimmers could be
very fast in the first 150 meters. That's why I did not worry when they led
then," he said.
Wu beat Takashi Yamamoto to win four years ago in Busan,
South Korea, before the latter captured a silver in the 2004 Athens Olympic
Games where Wu only finished sixth.
Wu improved his personal best by 0.8
seconds and would have won the world championships gold medal if he had swum
this fast last year in Montreal, Canada, where Pawel Korzeniowski of Poland was
crowned in 1:55.02.
East Asian Games winner Zhou Yafei and Pang Jiaying each
had two gold medals to their names when defending champion Zhou won the women's
100m butterfly in 58.39 after Pang beat defending champion and teammate Yang Yu
for the women's 200m freestyle gold in 1:59.26.
"I am satisfied with my
performance today as I brought my ability to a good display. You know, I have
been bothered by rhinitis recently," said Pang.
In the last event later this
night, the two rallied with Luo Nan (breaststroke) and Zhao Jing (backstroke) to
bring in another gold for China in the 4x100m medley relay.
Japan became the
sole competitive rival to China when they came second in 4:05.14. South Korea
finished a distant third in 4:09.22.
Asian champion Ji Liping of China took
the first ever 50m breaststroke gold and set the Games record in 31.52
The
50m breaststroke was added to the Asian Games program for the first
time.
Japanese Asami Kitagawa was second in 32.27 while Chinese teenager Wang
Jun took bronze in 32.53.
Hidemasa Sano and Shinya Taniguchi gave Japan a
one-two finish in the men's 400m individual medley.
Sano, who placed sixth in
last year's world championships, clocked 4:16.18, and his teammate took silver
in 4:17.91.
South Korean Han Kyu Chul settled for the third in
4:21.78.
Xinhua
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