Chinese swimmer Zhang Yufei won the 50m butterfly on Friday to claim her sixth gold medal of the Hangzhou Asian Games, the most by a female athlete at a single edition of the continent’s sporting extravaganza. Zhang, 25, won the butterfly in a Games record time of 25.10 seconds on the final day’s swimming action in Hangzhou, ensuring that each of her six golds included a Games record.
“I am quite happy about the results,” said Zhang. “From the National Games to the Asian Games, even my coach said he has never seen me this disciplined before.”
But Zhang missed out on a seventh gold in the women’s 4x100m freestyle relay after her team mates were disqualified in the morning’s heat after a false start.
Had she also won that she would have equalled the men’s record of seven golds from a single edition of the Games held by North Korean shooter So Gil-san from the Games in New Delhi in 1982. Zhang’s teammate Qin Haiyang, 24, who won the men’s 50m breaststroke, finished his Games with an impressive five golds, five Games records and two Asian records. Both are likely to shine at next year’s Paris Olympics.
Earlier on day six India’s shooters enjoyed another strong day with their men’s 50m rifle team breaking the world record as they won gold. Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar, Swapnil Suresh Kusale and Akhil Sheoran secured gold with a total of 1,769 points, six points more than China and eight more than the previous record set by the United States last November.
India had a sensational one-two finish in the women’s 10m air pistol final as 17-year-old Palak Gulia and 18-year-old Esha Singh won gold and silver, respectively.
Pakistan’s Kishmala Talat picked up bronze for her country’s first medal of the Hangzhou Games.
On the first day of athletics, Tokyo Olympic champion shot putter Gong Lijiao delighted home fans with her third straight Games title thanks to a throw of 19.58m, with her teammate Song Jiayuan collecting silver. The hosts won golds across the board again on Friday including in track cycling, artistic gymnastics and tennis where 2023 US Open quarter-finalist Zheng Qinwen, beat her compatriot Zhu Lin 6-2, 6-4 to win the women’s singles title.
At the eSports venue superstar gamer ‘Faker’ and his Korean teammates celebrated after overcoming Taiwan 2-0 in front of an excited crowd to take gold in the multiplayer battle game “League of Legends” category. As was the case in the semi-final, ‘Faker’ whose real name is Lee Sang-hyeok, was only a reserve for the final due to illness, according to Games organisers, and did not come on. But since he played in a previous round he still joined his teammates on the podium. As Asian champions they will all also now officially qualify for exemption from Korea’s military service for young men.
Meanwhile, Afghan boxer Mohamed Khaibar Nooristani has been provisionally suspended at the Asian Games after failing an anti-doping test, the International Testing Agency (ITA) said. He is the first athlete at the Games to be announced as having failed a drugs test.
The 37-year-old, who had been set to compete in the men’s 63.5-71kg category, has been informed of the case. He can request the analysis of the B-sample.