25 Sep 2023
China turn Hangzhou waters gold at Asian Games
China dominated their home Asian Games regatta in Hangzhou, winning 11 of the 14 gold medals on offer and adding two more silvers to their tally across the two days of finals.
The home nation started things off with victory in the lightweight women’s double sculls, and ended the regatta by becoming the first-ever Asian Games champions in the women’s eight. The LW2x victory was welcomed with particular enthusiasm by the crowds in the grandstands and on the banks of the Beizhi river, as bow Zou Jiaqi was born in Hangzhou.
Zhang Liang won two gold medals, and in the process became the most successful rower in Asian Games history, surpassing Li Jianxin who coxed China to four victories in the 1980s and 1990s.
Zhang and Liu Zhiyu capped off a solid season with victory in the men’s double sculls on Sunday, ahead of Uzbekistan and Indonesia. On Monday, Zhang added gold in the men’s single sculls, beating Ryuta Arakawa of Japan by 2.73 seconds with Hong Kong’s Chiu Hin Chun winning bronze.
“I cannot say I am a leader. I do what I should do as a rower, to pursue my goals and dreams, to do well,” Zhang said after the M1x final.
Uzbekistan won two titles. Anna Prakaten shrugged off the disappointment of failing to qualify her boat for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at the 2023 World Rowing Championships by winning the women’s single sculls with a big margin over Liu Riuqi of China and Japan’s Shiho Yonekawa.
Prakaten said afterwards she had enjoyed the atmosphere of the Asian Games and felt better in the boat than she had done in Belgrade.
In the men’s four, raced for the first time at the Asian Games since 2010, the Uzbek quartet of Shehroz Hakimov, Dilshodjon Khudoyberdiev, Davrjon Davronov and Alisher Turdiev produced an outstanding middle 1000m to row through China for gold.
Hong Kong’s Lam San Tung and Wong Wai Chun claimed the men’s pair title after proving stronger than Uzbekistan in the second 1000m, with India taking bronze.
A total of 10 nations won rowing medals across the two days of finals, with other medallists including Iran, Vietnam, the Republic of Korea and Thailand.
One of the three bronze medals claimed by Vietnam was in the women’s eight, behind China and Japan and ahead of Thailand and India.
The women’s eights were thrilled to get the chance to race the event for the first time at the Asian Games. Although many athletes were doubling up into the big boats and had had little time together as a crew, the sense of occasion was palpable.
“In the eight you have to breathe together and attack together, fly together – eight people like one,” said Vietnam’s Thi Hue Pham.
The Asian nations will next compete against each other at the Asia and Oceania Olympic Qualification Regatta in Korea in April.