Day Five Review of Guangzhou 2010 Asian Para Games

After five days of competition at the Guangzhou 2010 Asian Para Games 16 World records have been broken so far. Friday saw a number of sports host their final events.

Here’s a review of the action from Guangzhou, China.

Athletics

A bumper day of Athletics at the Aoti Main Stadium brought the best out of athletes.

In total 30 medal events took place and the winners recorded one World record, six Asian records and multiple personal bests. In addition a new World record was set by an athlete who won bronze in the Women’s 200m.

United Arab Emirates athlete Issa Aljahwari made it seven World records in throwing events at these Games by winning the Men’s Discuss F54/55/56 with a throw of 41.95m

After breaking the Women’s 200m T45 World record on Thursday, Sri Lanka’s Kumudu Dissanayake Mudiyanselage did the same again on Friday lowering her time from 28.67 to 28.58 in the Final of the Women’s T46 final, a result good enough to secure her bronze.

Of the six Asian records set on Friday, five of them were by Chinese athletes and included Dong Feixia in the Women’s Discus F54/55/56 (25.41m), Ma Yuxi in the Men’s 200m T37 (25.51), Zhou Wenjun in the Men’s 200m T38 (23.42), Xia Zhiwei in the Men’s Shot Put F40 (10.59), Jin Yajuan in the Women’s Shot Put F42/44/46 (12.49m)

Japan’s Keita Sato also set an Asian record by recording 25.15 in the Men’s 200m T44.

Swimming

The final day of Swimming saw 17 gold medals awarded, one World record broken, four Asian records set and one swimmer pick up two gold medals.

China’s Jiang Shengnan was the World record breaker in the Women’s 50m Freestyle S8 setting a new time of 30.85 to secure gold. This beat the previous best set by Britain’s Heather Frederiksen in Iceland in October 2009.

Although Shengnan may have broken the World record, arguably the star of the final day was Chinese Taipei’s Lin Shin Wei who picked up two gold medals starting with the Men’s 100m Breaststroke SB13 in a time of 1:22.81.

His second gold medal performance on the day at the Aoti Aquatics Centre also saw him break the Asian record by recording a time of 28.80 in the Men’s 50m Freestyle S13.

Other Asian records fell to two Chinese swimmers, Lin Ping in the Women’s 50m Freestyle S9 in 30.83 and Zheng Yonggi in the Men’s 100m Breaststroke SB12 in a time of 1:14.96. Korean Lim Woogeun’s time of 1:38.76 in the Men’s 100m Breaststroke SB5 was also an Asian record.

Powerlifting

Thailand struck gold in the first event of the day at the Asian Games Town Gymnasium through Arawan Bootpo in the Women’s 67.5kg. Her lift of 115.0kg was enough to knock China’s Wang Zhiping into silver and Malaysia’s Fatimah Wagimin into bronze.

The Women’s 75kg saw Chinese Taipei come out on top with Lin Tzu Hui lifting 135.0kg to secure gold. Syria’s Rasha Alshikh took silver and Jordan’s Tharwh Alhajaj the bronze.

China dominated the afternoon session winning both gold medals available starting with the Men’s 90kg. Cai Huichao’s lift of 225.0kg, more than twice his body weight, secured gold ahead of United Arab Emirates’ Mohammed Khamis Khalaf and Iran’s Ali Sadeghzadehsalmani in silver and bronze respectively.

In the Men’s 100kg China’s Tian Pingguang took gold with a lift of 225.0kg. Saudi Arabia’s Bassam Al Hawal took silver and Hamdo Sallat of Syria the bronze.

Saturday is the final day of Powerlifting at the Asian Para Games and three medals are up for grabs.

Shooting

Korea and host nation China shared the spoil in the final day of Shooting winning one gold medal each.

The first event of the day at the Aoti Shooting Range was the R6-SH1 Mixed 50m Free Rifle and China’s Dong Chao secured gold with a score of 687.9. Park Yeongjun of Korea claimed silver and Aki Taguchi of Japan the bronze.

Korea came out on top in the final shooting event of the Games – the P4-SH1 Mixed 50m Free Pistol – winning all three medals. Lee Ju Hee’s score of 642.3 was not only good enough to win gold but also break the final Asian record he had previously set in the qualification round which took place in the morning session. Silver went to Park Sea Kyun and bronze to Seo Youngkyun.

Archery

The final day at the Aoti Archery range saw two countries win a gold medal each. China won the Men’s Team Recurve Open whilst Korea claimed the Women’s title.

Badminton

The Tianhe Gymnasium hosted four bronze medal matches on Friday and winners included Japan and Malaysia in the Men’s Singles BMSTU4 and BMSTU5 categories.

In the Men’s Doubles Malaysia picked up bronze in BMSTU 1-3 and China came third in the BMSTU 4-5 class.

Boccia

The quarter-finals and semi-finals took place on Friday and on Saturday four gold medal matches will take place with Korea featuring in all four finals.

Cycling Road

China’s Liu Xinyang claimed the gold in the Men’s C4-5 Road Race, whilst Korea’s Cho Hangduk was victorious in the Mixed H 1-4 Road Race.

Football 5-a-side

The final preliminaries took place on Friday setting up a gold medal match on Saturday between China and Iran. Japan and Korea will contest the bronze at Aoti Hockey Field.

Football 7-a-side

An extra time victory by host nation China over Japan secured their place in Saturday’s final. Iran may well start as favourites though after thumping Korea 7-0 in the other semi-final.

Goalball

Korea and China will play-out the Men’s final on Saturday after both were victorious in Friday’s semi-finals against Japan and Iran respectively. The final group game between Japan and China in the women’s competition will determine which country wins gold.

Judo

The final day of Judo saw gold medals for Japan

In the Men’s 100kg Korea’s Choi Gwanggeun took gold, Iran’s Hamed Alizadeh silver and Japan’s Haruka Hirose and Mongolia’s Myagar Ochikhuva the bronze.

Wheelchair Tennis

In the Men’s Doubles Japan beat Korea to lift gold and Thailand beat China to claim the bronze. The Women’s Doubles gold medal was won by Thailand, Japan took silver and Chinese Taipei the bronze.

Saturday will see the medals decided in the Men’s and Women’s singles.

Table Tennis

Group games continued on Friday and medal matches will take place over the weekend.

Sitting Volleyball

In the Men’s semi-finals, Iran, the hot favourites for the gold medal, defeated Iraq and China beat Korea to set up Saturday’s final.

The women’s final will be between China and Japan following semi-final victories over Mogolia and Iran respectively.

All losing semi-finalist will play each other on Saturday to decide who wins the bronze.

For all the latest results from the Guangzhou Asian Para Games which will run until 19 December and involve around 2,500 athletes from 41 countries competing in 19 sports, please visit www.asianparalympic.org.