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There were jubilant scenes in the Incheon velodrome yesterday as South Korea beat China to gold in the Asian Games men’s cycling team sprint. The three-strong Korean team—Son Je-Yong, Im Chae-Bin and Kang Dong-Jin—qualified fastest but China rode off to an early lead, pushing the pace in the first lap. |
As the sun went down over the outdoor track, the crowd roared the home team on and South Korea rose to the challenge.
Final rider Im, 22, went all out to take the race in 59.61 seconds, a third of a second ahead of the Chinese trio of Xu Chao, Hu Ke and Bao Saofei on 59.96.
China were defending their Asian Games title after winning in Guangzhou in 2010 with different riders. The women’s team sprint was also a South Korea-China head-to-head, but the Chinese dominated. Gong Jinjie and Zhong Tianshi beat their Korean counterparts—Lee Hye-Jin and Kim Wong-Yeong—by more than a second in a convincing performance, with sprint ace Zhong leading the charge to the line to win in 43.876 seconds against Korea’s 44.876.
Zhong, 23, already has a silver under her belt from the team sprint at this year’s World Championships while veteran Gong, 27, took silver in the event at the London Olympics where she and Guo Shuang broke the world record.
Zhong will also line up for the women’s keirin tomorrow where she is among the favourites to challenge Sarah Lee Wai-sze of Hong Kong, who is tipped for gold.
The Japanese men beat Iran for bronze in the men’s team sprint while Taiwan took bronze in the women’s team sprint, edging out Japan.
Palestinian ‘battle’
The head of the Palestinian Olympic Committee told yesterday of the “battle” to get to the Asian Games just weeks after a brutal 50-day war in Gaza.
Jibril Al Rajoub said that 37 sports officials and journalists had died in the beleaguered strip during the conflict between Israel and Hamas. Al Rajoub told AFP that three of the dead were sportsmen in Gaza. “Our participation in Incheon is a national and political battle,” he said.
“Even although the Palestinian people are living in circumstances that limit their movement inside Palestine and outside also, and financial difficulties we are facing, we were able to take part in this Asian Games with 80 sportsmen, including seven women, in 12 disciplines,” the official said.
He praised the men’s football side which has won its first two games and sits top of its group. The Palestinians have defeated Tajikistan and Oman, 2-1 and 2-0 respectively. “Our football team is almost through to the second round,” al Rajoub enthused. “This is a big achievement for Palestinian sports and an excellent sign of our participation.
“All our players are under 22 with no one from the first team, which has already qualified for the Asian Cup in Australia,” in January, he added.
“But I’m sure that after the good performance here, some of the players will join the Asian finals.
“I feel that we have a good improvement in football and this comes after our achievement in the AFC Challenge Cup,” which the Palestinian side won, qualifying for the Asian Cup.
The Israeli-Hamas war ended with a truce on August 26. More than 2,140 Palestinians, most of them civilians, and 73 Israelis, mostly soldiers, were killed.
