Korean, Chinese riders win golds in Asian Games
South Korea and China won the two gold medals at stake in the 2010 Asian Games cycling competition at the Guangzhou Velodrome on Tuesday.
The quartet of Jang Sun-jae, Cho Ho-sung, Hwang In-hyeok and Park Sun-ho combined for a time of 4:07.875 to beat Hong Kong in the men's team pursuit final. The race was four kilometres long.
The Hong Kong squad of Cheung King Lok, Cheung King Wai, Choi Ki Ho and Kwok Ho Ting actually led after the first 1,000m but the South Koreans outpaced them to take the title. The Hong Kong riders clocked
4:10.859.
The victory gave South Korea its second gold of the cycling competition following Jang's victory in the individual pursuit on Sunday.
"We actually expected victory from the start of the competition," Jang told AFP after becoming the first cyclist to win double gold medals at two consecutive Asiads.
Jang added that their discipline and hard work paid off in Guangzhou.
"In the early days it was painful as if my legs were broken. I wanted to eat, but couldn't eat anything in an effort to control my weight," he said.
China won the bronze medal after beating Iran in the third-place race-off. Jiang Xiao, Li Wei, Wang Mingwei and Wang Jie clocked 4:11.349 to beat the Iranian squad of Alireza Haghi, Arvin Moazemi Goudarzi,
Mehdi Sohrabi and Amir Zargari (4:17.993).
In the women's points race final, Liu Xin of China scored 34 points to win the gold medal. The race was marred by two crashes that injured several riders.
Wong Wan Yiu was among those involved in the collision but managed to pick herself up and claimed the silver medal with 27 points.
"I felt a bike bump directly against my rib in today's accident. It was terribly painful," she said. Thailand's Chanpeng Nontasin took bronze with 25 points.
Hong Kong coach Shen Jinkang, who assisted Wong after the race, said her ward suffered a lot from the intense race.
"She might have a fracture. In order to make her stand firm on the platform we had to use a board to support her. Her pulse was 207 per minute when she finished the race," Shen said.
Among the five riders who failed to finish the race was Hong Kong rider Diao Xiao Juan, who dislocated her shoulder.
A total of 17 riders took part in the points race, where the competitors aim to earn points during eight sprints.
Tags: