GUANGZHOU: An “extraordinary” Asian Games on Saturday closed after 15 days of thrills and spills that saw China reinforce its sporting credentials and Japan slip further behind.
On the last day of action at an Asiad unprecedented in size and scale, China fittingly won the last gold at stake when their women’s volleyball team toppled South Korea 3-2 in a thrilling finale.
Zhou Chunxiu earlier added yet more gold to their glittering haul by defending her women’s marathon title with teammate Zhu Xiaolin taking silver and North Korea’s Kim Kum-Ok the bronze. South Korea’s Ji Youngjun won the men’s race.
The volleyball success pushed the host nation’s final gold tally to 199 and its total medals to a whopping 416 — both Asian Games records. While China basked in its most successful Asiad ever, its arch-rival Japan performed worse then expected, winning just 48 titles for an overall 216 total medals. It left them well behind South Korea, who claimed 76 gold and 232 medals altogether.
“The reason why we have been largely successful is related to the rise of our nation, along with the constant rise of China’s economy and our comprehensive national strength,” China’s vice minister of sport Duan Shijie said.
“This medal haul again can represent a major achievement in our preparations for the London Olympic Games.” While the traditional big three dominated, 36 of the 45 countries and territories taking part managed to climb the podium, with some notable successes.
Macau won its first gold medal ever through Jia Rui in the men’s wushu and Bangladesh matched that breakthrough, claiming the men’s cricket title in an exciting victory over Afghanistan.
Oman and Nepal propped up the table with a single bronze each, but there was no joy for minnows like Timor-Leste, Maldives, Turkmenistan, Brunei and Cambodia. There were three world records (two in weightlifting and one in archery) as well as 103 Asian records.
In all, 12,600 drug tests were carried out with just two failures — Uzbek wrestler Jakhongir Muminov and Uzbek judoka Shokir Muminov. The Games were overshadowed somewhat by the North Korean artillery attack on South Korea, as well as a diplomatic dispute over the disqualification of a Taiwan taekwondo fighter.
There were also early problems with empty stadiums, complaints about the long distances to venues and heavy security, but Olympic Council of Asia president Sheikh Ahmed Al Fahad Al Sabah had nothing but praise. Organising committee deputy secretary-general Xu Ruisheng said he too was pleased with the outcome of an event that took seven years to plan and cost billions of dollars, transforming this southern metropolis.
Like the widely-acclaimed curtain-raiser, the closing ceremony was held not inside a stadium but on a boat-shaped island in the middle of the Pearl River, which meanders through the heart of China’s third-largest city. This time it celebrated Asia’s diverse cultures, with music and dance from India, Lebanon, Japan, Kazakhstan and Mongolia.
Korean pop sensation Rain performed as part of the handover to the 2014 host — Incheon.
