GUANGZHOU: World champion Maryam Jamal failed dismally in her bid for a middle distance double Wednesday as a fired-up Pakistan won its first men’s Asian Games hockey gold in 20 years.
The Pakistani breakthrough, their first major title since the World Cup in Sydney in 1994, went some way to compensate for their cricket team being stunned by Afghanistan in the semi-finals.
On Day 13, China has its sights firmly set on shattering its best-ever gold medal haul, which stands at 183 from the Beijing Asiad in 1990.
They now have 181 with two days left, having already made the Guangzhou Games its most successful ever in terms of total medals with 376 safely in Chinese hands.
Policewoman Ren Cancan contributed by becoming the first woman to win an Asian Games boxing title by defeating Annie Albania of the Philippines in the 48-51kg bout.
Malaysia also tasted success with world number one Nicol David leading her country past Hong Kong to win the women’s team squash gold.
But their quest for a clean-sweep was denied when Pakistan won the men’s team final.
There was disappointment for Bahrain’s Ethiopian-born Jamal who missed out on adding the 800m gold to the 1500m one she won on Tuesday, failing in her bid to match her exploits from four years ago in Doha.
The 1500m world champion slumped to sixth as tiredness took over, allowing Kazakhstan’s Margarita Matsko to take the glory.
While Jamal flopped, Japan’s Chisato Fukushima completed her own double by adding the 200m title to the 100m already to her name. Fukushima clocked 23.62 seconds, with Vietnam’s Vu Thi Huong taking silver and Guzel Khubbieva of Kazakhstan claiming bronze.
In other events, Qatar’s Femi Ogunode added the men’s 200m to his 400m title, South Korea’s Lee Yeon-Kyung took the women’s 100m hurdles and India’s Ashwini Akkunji stood atop the 400m hurdles podium.
War-ravaged Afghanistan have only won two medals so far, a silver and bronze in the taekwondo, but they guaranteed themselves another by upsetting Pakistan by 22 runs in the cricket.
“It’s a big win for Afghanistan. Every person there is watching the match and everybody is happy about this win,” said captain Mohammad Nabi.
Their reward is a gold medal clash on Friday against Bangladesh, who beat Sri Lanka by five wickets.
Meanwhile, China’s Wang Shipeng hit a three point shot with 13 seconds left as the reigning basketball champions beat Iran 68-65 to make the final against South Korea, who dispatched Japan 55-51. China clinched women’s basketball gold with a 70-64 win over South Korea.
