Asian Games: 14 world records broken, six doping cases registered

Om Yunchol

Incheon, Oct 4 (IANS)

The 17th Incheon Asian Games concluded Saturday with 14 world records broken 17 times and six doping cases detected prior to the closing ceremony.

From the bonanza of 439 events, China reaped 151 gold medals to keep their dominance at the Asian Games for the ninth consecutive times. They also collected 108 silver and 83 bronze medals from the fortnight regional sports gala.

Hosts South Korea were pushed to a distant second place with 79 golds, 71 silvers and 84 bronzes, but well ahead of rivals Japan who placed third on a 47-76-77 sheet.

Although a total of 37 countries and regions made the medal table, Bhudan, the Maldives, and East Timor still have to wait for four more years to hope for their breakthrough for their first-ever medal when Jakarta will host the 18th Asian Games in 2118.

Om Yunchol of North Korea became the first athlete to break the world record at the Games when he lifted 170kg in clean and jerk in the men's 56kg category on Sep 20.

Since then, eight more weightlifting world records were shattered, including Om's teammates Kim Unguk, who had his name penned on the record sheet three times in the men's 62kg, and Kim Unju in the women's 75kg category.

Lin Tzu Chi of Chinese Taipei also banged thrice in the women's 63kg, while her teammate Hsu Shu Ching inked her name on the women's 53kg record sheet.

Deng Wei and Zhou Lulu became the Chinese strongwomen to mark the sheet in the women's 63kg and over 75kg categories respectively.

Apart from weightlifting, shooting range produced four world records with three set up by the Chinese sharpshooters in the 10m women's air rifle team, 50m rifle prone men's team and the double trap team events.

The hosts also broke two world records in the women's double trap and women's 24-arrow compound team.

Besides, 27 Asian records were also broken in Incheon.

However, the Incheon Games were not without controversy, as scoring in boxing became the perennial disputes, resulting in complaints from five countries, and Qatar's women basketball team even pulled out without playing after their traditional headscarves, or hijabs, were banned on the court.

Furthermore, six doping cases had been announced, including two gold medal winners, one from China and the other from from Malaysia. Other four cheaters were a soft tennis player from Cambodia, a Tajik footballer, an Iraqi weightlifter and a Syrian karate athlete.