Swim wars underline Asian Olympic threat
China’s fractious rivalry with Japan threatened to boil over into a political row at the Asian Games as the regional superpowers fought tooth and nail for supremacy in the swimming pool.
Controversial Olympic champion Sun Yang, the fiery Chinese talisman who appeared in a TV commercial before the Games poking fun at South Korea’s Park Tae-Hwan, had to issue an apology after calling the Japanese national anthem ‘ugly’.
China’s women finished with an overall gold medal tally of 22 compared to Japan’s 12, but the men’s competition had a different scenario, with the Japanese edging it 8-7 to prompt talk of a shift of power in Asian swimming.
Sun, stunned by Japan sensation Kosuke Hagino in the men’s 200m freestyle, insisted otherwise after the dust had settled.
“I don’t believe there’s been a shift to Japan,” he told reporters. “We’re better in freestyle and they’re better in individual medley. To assess China’s performance, you have to look at the whole team, not just the men. We can always improve.”
China’s bling king dominated the 400m and 1,500m freestyle, with former Olympic champion Park seeming to shrink in his hulking presence.
Park failed to win any of his four individual events but his bronze in Friday’s 4x100m medley relay gave him his 20th Asian Games medal. Hagino, on the other hand, finished with seven medals, including four golds.
India upset archery kings South Korea
Indian archer Rajar Chauhan, whose mother sold her gold ornaments to buy him an imported bow, helped win his country their first ever Asian Games gold medal in the sport on Saturday.
Rajat Chauhan, along with teammates Sandeep Kumar and Abhishek Verma, stunned hosts and world champions South Korea in the men’s compound team final.
The Indians edged out the Koreans 227-225 in the non-Olympic event in front of a vocal crowd at the Gyeyang archery field in Incheon.
Meanwhile, badminton’s world number one Lee Chong Wei fought back from a game down to set up a crunch Asian Games semi-final with arch-rival and long-time nemesis Lin Dan on Saturday.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 28th, 2014.
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