China Tops Medal Table at Asian Champs

The superb conditions continued for the last day of racing at the Asian Championships, with just a mild head-breeze and extremely flat water. Racing was also excellent and an enthusiastic crowd of spectators enjoyed a further seven senior and four junior finals.

China again dominated all of the senior events, with the exception of the last race of the day – the men’s eight – where an excellent Korean crew moved into the lead from the start and took gold by a comfortable margin in a time of 6’02″78. China was second in 6’14″60 and India held off a spirited challenge from Chinese Taipei to take the bronze medal in 6’18″83. Korea will host the Asian Games in Pusan next year and are obviously preparing their teams with this in mind.

One of the most exciting races of the day came just before the eights, with a strong field in the men’s quad. The experienced Chinese crew of Huang Xiaopin, Hua Linjun, Su Hui and Li Xiaohua moved into the lead from the start followed closely by Uzbekistan, whilst the remainder of the pack settled almost a length behind. By the halfway point, China had drawn well away but the following crews had begun to overhaul Uzbekistan who were perhaps paying the price for chasing the lead at the start. With 500 meters to go, after a strong third quarter, the lightweight crew from Hong Kong had moved from fourth into second place, closely followed by India. These two crews then battled to the line, with China first in 6’15″56, Hong Kong second in 6’29″19 and India third in 6’32″04.

The lightweight men’s double scull was also an extremely competitive event, with crews beginning to consider their Olympic qualification options for Athens. Hong Kong, Indonesia, China, Chinese Taipei, Korea and DPR Korea were the finalists in this event. China, Korea and DPR Korea were the early leaders and, by halfway, the Chinese crew had established a clear margin with Korea and DPR Korea side by side in second. This group were followed some three seconds back by remaining three crews, who began to attack strongly in the third 500 meters. In the sprint to the finish, Chinese Taipei just edged out Indonesia to take bronze in 6’58″57. Korea took silver in 6’58″33 and China gold in 6’42″90. DPR Korea dropped to last, with Indonesia 4th and Hong Kong 5th.

The lightweight men’s four was won by China in 6’40″36, with India second and Hong Kong third.

The senior women’s events on day two were the women’s quad, lightweight women’s quad and women’s pair. China, Japan and DPR Korea were the leading group away from the start in the lightweight women’s quad and these positions were maintained to the finish. China’s time was 6’59″43, Japan 7’09″15 and DPR Korea 7’28″73.

The women’s quad was won easily by China in 7’07″58 with Chinese Taipei and Hong Kong taking second and third respectively. China also won the women’s pair, with Korea taking the silver medal and Indonesia taking bronze.

In the junior championship, Korea repeated their performance in the trial races to win both the junior men’s and junior women’s coxless pairs – beating Hong Kong and China in the men’s race and China and Chinese Taipei in the women. The remaining junior races were won by China, although they were challenged hard by Hong Kong in the junior men’s quad. Hong Kong also took silver behind China in the junior women’s quad ahead, whilst Chinese Taipei took bronze in both events.

At the conclusion of the regatta, China topped the medal table in the 9^th Asian Championships, followed by Korea and Chinese Taipei. China was also on top for the 7th Asian Junior Championships, followed by Korea and Hong Kong.

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