Asian nations come good in Beijing

Asian nations firmly established themselves on the Olympic medal table Monday with Japan's Kosuke Kitajima setting a world record and Abhinav Bindra winning an historic gold for India.

Kitajima, the 100m breaststroke king, smashed American Brendan Hansen's world mark to touch in 58.91sec and successfully defend his Athens title in the futuristic Water Cube.

It was Japan's second gold of the Games after Masato Uchishiba retained his lightweight title on the judo mats on Sunday.

Bindra had an equally memorable day, clinching India's first ever individual Olympic gold medal by winning the men's 10m Air Rifle shooting title. Athens champion Zhu Qinan of China took the silver.

While India's success was historic, regional powerhouse China is set to overshadow every other Asian country's achievements here, and it leads the medal standings with six gold.

Japan and South Korea (three gold) traditionally battle for second best. A rampant China had its best-ever performance in Athens, finishing second overall to the United States with 32 gold, while Japan with 16 came fifth. South Korea's nine gold earned them ninth place.

While the three Asian heavyweights should again take the bulk of the glory, smaller fry like Thailand, Taiwan, Indonesia, Vietnam, and North Korea have already got themselves on the podium here with more in store.

Kitajima, who let out a piercing yell of triumph, said his victory was like a dream come true.

"My performance was perfect and ideal, my time was excellent. It's what I have been hoping for," said the Japanese star, who launches his defense of the 200m title on Tuesday. "When I saw the screen I could see the time as 59.90 and I thought that was terribly slow, but when I looked again it was 58."

Elsewhere in the pool, China's Zhou Yafei finished just off the podium n a credible fourth in the women's 100m butterfly final which was won by Australian world record holder Libby Trickett.

Singapore had something to shout about with Tao Li in the same race. The 18-year-old student finished fifth after clocking a new Asian record of 57.54 en-route to the final.

In one of the most thrilling shooting finals in Olympic history, businessman Bindra overcame a two-point deficit against Finland's Henri Hakkinen and one point against Zhu after the qualification rounds to annexe the title.

The Indian trumped his rivals with the best finish of 104.5 in the 10-shot final as he went into the last shot level with Hakkinen on 689.7 points.

While Bindra secured his best score of 10.8 in the deciding shot, Hakkinen managed only 9.7 to concede the silver to Zhu, whose last shot was 10.5.

BEIJING Aug 11, 2008 (AFP)