Payday has come early.

Macao reaped early dividends for costly nine-year work for the East Asian Games as the host athletes nabbed six gold medals on Sunday, sextupling their historical gold haul from the past three editions.

Chinese mainland’s Guo Jingjing smiles after receiving her gold medal in the women’s 1-meter springboard diving event at the fourth East Asian Games in Macau yesterday.

China, set to dominate the nine-day games, got up steam sweeping 21 golds, including an easy one from diving queen Guo Jingjing and a weightlifting gold from Yang Lian who had erased a world record on the way.

The other participants - Japan, South Korea, DPR Korea, Mongolia, Guam, Chinese Taipei and Hong Kong - were without gold.

To prove Macao is more than a gambling enclave, the games organizers spent 375 million US dollars on sports venues including super-modern Macao Dome, which cost 75 million.

At three previous games, Macao got one gold and five bronzes, twice placing last in the medal standings.

Huang Yanhui sent Macao to a flying start in the morning as the 24-year-old put up a fast and furious display of southern Chinese fist fighting in the Nanquan event and won the games' first gold.

Huang, who moved here from southeast China's Fujian Province three years ago, scored 9.75 points. Japan's Erika Kojima took the silver with 9.62 and Chen Shaochi of Chinese Taipei picked the bronze with 9.40.

Macao sports official Pun Wenkun said Huang's gold proved Macao was no longer a sporting nobody.

Qi Zhijian followed Huang with the men's 60kg-class Sanshou (combat) title and Jia Rui walked away as the men's Changquan (long boxing) champion.

China bagged nine gold medals on the first medal day of wushu competition.

Macao athletes also grabbed three golds from dragon boat races, in which the other five events went to China.

China swept the board in Sunday's weightlifting competition as Lu Jinbi and Zhang Xiangxiang took the men's 56kg and 62kg class respectively and Yang Lian broke a world record to win the women's 48g division.

Yang, 21, bettered the clean-and-jerk world record by one kilogram with a 117kg heave. Her winning total was 207kg.
Guo Jingjing, one of 11 Chinese Olympic champions here, beat her teammate Ma Qianli by 23.85 points in the women's 1m springboard final.

The 24-year-old Guo, hugely popular with Macao media and mobbed on her arrival, scored 319.59 points, ahead of Ma with 295.74 and Japan's Ryokyo Nishii with 292.53.

Luo Yutong dominated the 3m springboard and Chang Jiang/Wang Liang grabbed the men's 10m synchronized platform event.

China won the men's gymnastics team crown with 227.846 points with Japan and South Korea finishing second and third.

In basketball, China beat Japan on two fronts, with the men's side winning 70-57 and the women's squad winning 73-72.

Chinese Taipei won both the men's and women games too, beating Hong Kong men 57-55 and crushing DPR Korean women 96-63.

The South Korean downed Mongolia 86-57 in the other men's match.