China Dominates First Day of Finals at Asian Champs

China dominated the senior events on the first day of finals racing Wednesday at the 9^th Asian Championships, winning all of the 10 finals contested today. Indonesia, top nation at the SEA Games earlier this month, and Korea, host of next years Asian Games in Pusan followed China in the medal table with 2 silver and 2 bronze medals each. Ten nations took a share of the medals overall however.

At the 7th Asian Junior Championships, being run in parallel with the senior event this year, Hong Kong and Japan led the medal table on day one, with one gold and one silver medal each. They were followed by China and Korea, with a total of 7 nations taking at least one medal.

The first gold medal of the day went to Hong Kong’s Law Hiu Fung, racing in the junior men’s single. The early lead was held by Jefraim Dolo of Indonesia, winner of the other heat but Law quickly moved into the lead in the second 500 and pulled steadily away from the field to win by a comfortable margin in a time of 7’36″53. Chinese Taipei and Korea took second and third places, with Dolo slipping back to 5th.

The junior women’s single scull saw the gold medal go to Japan’s Mayu Okumura in a time of 8’33″58. An excellent row by India’s Gurpreet Kau however landed the silver medal, with China’s Huang Yuan taking third.

The junior men’s double event was won by Korea in a time of 7’12″44, after a hard fought battle with crews from Hong Kong, China and Japan. China led for the first 1000 meters, but were overhauled first by Korea and then by Hong Kong to finish in third position, ahead of Japan.

Gold in the junior women’s double did go to China however in a time of 7’47″84, although they were challenged strongly all the way down the course by a very competitive Japanese crew who finished just behind in 7’50″84.

China won all of the gold medals in the Group A senior events contested today. Particularly impressive again was top women sculler Zhang Xiuyun, who is clearly still a world-caliber sculler. Zhang was never taxed in her final and won by a large margin from Pere Karoba of Indonesia and Kim Eon-ha of Korea. Zhang, together with partner Zhang Shuang, also had little difficulty in winning the women’s double just over an hour later. They beat crews from Chinese Taipei and Kazakhstan.

The lightweight women’s single was won by Bian Li-yun in 8’33″62 from Hong Kong in front of  Hong Kong’s Yung Ka Yan (8’43″66). Another promising young Indian sculler, Jincymol Var, was third.

The men’s single scull was won by Cui Yong-hui in 7’26″62, with Indonesia’s Lasmin Lasmin second (7’33″47) and Kim Dal-ho of Korea third.

The men’s lightweight single was won by Xu Hong-ru in 7’30″74, with Japan’s Kazuya Yamada second (7’35″65) and Lo Sing Yan of Hong Kong China third.

The men’s double attracted very competitive crews from a number of other Asian nations. Crews from Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan in Central Asia and a crew from the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea challenged China for medals. Ultimately, China took gold in 7’04″91, with Kazakhstan second in 7’08″63 and DPR Korea collecting it’s first medal of the Championships in 7’17″25. Uzbekistan was fourth, but also gained its first medal later in the day with a bronze in the men’s four behind China (6’28″49) and Korea (6’33″72).

Finals for group B take place Thursday.

The medallists for the first day of Finals at the Asian Championships:

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