Chinese, South Korean win marathon golds in Asian Games
Host China and South Korea topped the marathon events on Saturday, the last day of competition in the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games.
Zhou Chunxiu gave home fans something to cheer for when she ruled the women's event. The defending champion finished the race in a season best two hours and 25 minutes. Another Chinese Zhu Xiaolin won the silver in 2:26.35 while North Korean Kim Kum-ok claimed
the bronze in 2:27.06.
The three medallists kept pace with each other through the first 30km of the race. Zhou, the Beijing Olympics bronze medallist, then started to make her move and slowly pulled away from the two runners.
Zhu tried to keep up with her team-mate but found herself almost a minute behind heading into the final 2km of the race. With her nearest pursuer way behind, Zhou calmly crossed the finish line.
"This has been my best season in terms of results, which is what I expect because I am an experienced athlete with good basic skills," Zhou told AP.
"I did quite well in Seoul in March and here at the Asian Games. I had a personal best performance as well as good training performances. The marathon ended a perfect year for me."
In the men's race, Ji Young-jun of South Korea upset defending champion Mubarak Hassan Shami of Qatar. Ji broke away from Shami in the final few kilometres of the race to win the final gold of the athletics programme.
He finished the 42.4km race in 2:11:11. Japanese Yukihiro Kitaoka claimed the silver in 2:12:46 while Kenya-born Shami settled for the bronze in 2:12:53.
Ji, Kitaoka, Shami and China's Dong Guojian made up the lead pack in the latter stages of the race. Ji and Shami then pulled away and exchanged leads. The South Korean eventually gained the upper hand and maintained a distance from the Qatari until the finish
line. Frustrated by Ji's impressive run, Shami lost his momentum and was overtaken by Kitaoka in the final 200m of the race.
"I trained very, very hard before the race, which is why I really deserve this gold medal," Ji said.
It was a frustrating result for Shami, who had the best time in the 22-man field.
China ended the Asian Games athletics competition with 13 golds, 15 silver and eight bronze medals. India was a distant second with a 5-2-4 haul while Bahrain ranked third with a 5-0-4 harvest.
Japan placed fourth with a 4-8-8 tally; Kazakhstan managed a 4-4-3 production; while South Korea had a 4-3-3 output.
Other countries that won gold medals were Qatar (3-4-4), Saudi Arabia (3-2-3), Uzbekistan (2-3-3), Iran (2-2-1), Thailand (1-0-2) and Tajikistan (1-0-0).
Also making it to the medal table were Vietnam (0-3-2), Chinese Taipei (0-1-1), Iraq (0-1-0), Oman (0-0-1), North Korea (0-0-1) and United Arab Emirates (0-0-1).
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