At the skate park, 13-year-old Cui Chenxi became China’s youngest Asian Games gold medallist when she won the women’s street event. With an eye-catching performance featuring several ‘Ollies’ and a huge move off a high rail, Cui took gold ahead of compatriot Zeng Wenhui, 18, with Japanese 16-year-old Miyu Ito taking bronze. “I did quite well today,” Cui said modestly.
Cui, who hails from China’s eastern Shandong province, only took up skateboarding in 2020 when China’s Covid restrictions meant she could not practice rollerblading, which she began as a three-year-old. The street competition involves skaters performing daring tricks on a course that has features that resemble an urban environment including rails and gaps.
In bright, warm and humid conditions, which felt even hotter because of the skate park’s innate lack of greenery, scores of dragonflies shared air time with the competitors as they performed their tricks. The skaters did two ‘runs’ followed by five individual ‘tricks’. Each athlete’s highest scoring run and two highest scoring tricks were then added together to reach a final score.
Margielyn Didal, who won gold for the Philippines at the 2018 Asian Games, is still only 24 yet she seemed like a veteran with all her competitors in the final 18 or under. “I don’t feel old because I’m also a bit childish, I just want to mess around,” she said, after an injury in the final meant she finished last of the eight skaters.
In the men’s final, another 13-year-old and hot favourite for the title, Ginu Onodera, was in the lead after the “run” section. But the Japanese failed to land a single of his “tricks” and so dropped down to seventh.
China’s Zhang Jie, 16, won the gold, making that three golds out of a possible four for the host nation at the skate park. “I felt very excited and happy to win the gold medal,” Zhang said. “I never saw it coming.”
On the opening day of men’s cricket, Nepal broke a host of records on their way to beating Mongolia by 273 runs. That included their 314-3 total which was the first time any international team has gone past 300 in this format. Nepal beat the previous highest T20 men’s international innings of 278-3 by Afghanistan against Ireland in 2019.
Teenager Kushal Malla, batting number three, spearheaded the onslaught by crashing the fastest T20 international century, off 34 balls. Among the other records they racked up, Dipendra Singh Airee hit a scarcely believable eight sixes in an unbeaten 52 off 10 balls.
The powerful 23-year-old raced to his fifty off nine balls, another T20 world record and one that should stand in perpetuity because it is mathematically impossible to reach the landmark any quicker. Nepal’s 26 sixes in the innings was also the best ever. Mongolia, whose women’s team were bowled out for just 15 at the Asian Games last week, were dismissed for only 41 in 13.1 overs. Much sterner tests await for Nepal, with India and Pakistan both in the draw.
In the velodrome, Japan were dominant winning all three golds on offer on day four, in the women’s keirin and the men’s and women’s team pursuit. “We were actually already celebrating during the last three or four laps,” said Naoki Kojima, from the men’s pursuit team.
But China’s medal tally continued to far exceed all of the others. On Wednesday the hosts won golds across the board including in gymnastics, sailing, chess, beach volleyball, chess, taekwondo, shooting and Wushu.
Thailand won the Asian Games’ first gold medal for the online version of the beautiful game. In an all-Thai final Teedech Songsaisakul beat his compatriot and close friend Phatanasak Varanan 2-0 to take the gold in the online soccer game EA Sports FC Online, with South Korea’s Kwak Junhyouk picking up bronze. China won the Games’ first eSports gold on Tuesday in the ‘Arena of Valor’ multiplayer battle game.
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