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China end athletics competition on a high
(AFP)
Updated: 2005-11-05 10:42
Olympic champion Xing Huina stuttered to victory in the women's 5,000m, as
China wrapped up the East Asian Games athletics competition with five victories
out of eight on the final morning.
Xing Huina
(L) runs in front of Japan's Hiromi Ominami during the women's 5000 metre
final at the 4th East Asian Games in Macau November 4, 2005. Xing won the
gold medal in the event as Ominami took silver.
[Reuters] | The late blitz, after Japan swept 10
titles on Thursday, left China with 26 of the 45 athletics golds ahead of Japan
on 16 and South Korea on three.
Xing's heat-affected run was followed by Chinese wins in the heptathlon and
women's 4,400m relay. Earlier, Zhang Qi had won the men's shot-put with a
Games-record 20.06m and Feng Yun had triumphed in the women's 100m hurdles.
Japan's Yuki Nakamura earned his second gold medal of the Games with victory
in the men's 5,000m, three days after winning the 10,000m. The Japanese team
also won the men's 4x400m, which China did not enter.
South Korea's Kim Deok-hyeon rounded off the field events with a win in the
men's triple-jump.
Xing, the biggest draw on day seven, worried her fans with an early lapse but
recovered to win the women's 5,000m by a distance here on Thursday.
The Athens 10,000m champion, disqualified from her National Games 1,500m for
elbowing, was leading in the fourth minute from Japan's Hiromi Ominami when she
slowed suddenly and began moving awkwardly, dropping quickly off the pace.
But Xing, running in hot conditions at Macau Stadium, recovered to build a
big lead with Hiromi from South and North Koreans Bae Hae-jin and Ro Myon-gok.
With 300 metres to go, Xing kicked into gear and roared past Hiromi,
finishing 50 metres clear but more than a minute-and-a-half off the Games record
in 16:04.56.
Afterwards, Xing blamed the weather for her erratic run and said she had
always been in control of the race.
"I didn't mean to do it, perhaps it was because it was so hot. I slowed down
a little bit but when I noticed my competitor was coming up I increased my
speed," she said.
Nakamura timed a slow 14:05.77 in the men's 5,000m and was also unhappy with
his performance, and that of his team.
"The 5,000m wasn't that good but my goal here was to get gold medals in both
events and I'm happy I was able to do that," he said, warning that Japan had to
improve if they wanted to challenge China at the next Olympics.
"We have got to get stronger in the future," he said.
China have wowed the small crowds here with star athletes Xing and Liu Xiang,
as well as Olympic diver Guo Jingjing and swimmer Luo Xuejuan, who was expected
to add to her 50m breaststroke title in the 100m later on Thursday.
But, like Japan, most of the Chinese team are less experienced athletes being
groomed for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Athens gold-medallist Zhu Qinan was due to take part in the men's 10m air
rifle for China, who are closing on 100 gold medals with 92.
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