China and Koreas are big winners in London
China proved they've arrived as a genuine Olympic super-power, and
both Koreas impressed -- but Japan were top of the flops among Asian
countries at the London Games.
China may not have repeated their feats of Beijing 2008, when they
topped the medals table for the first time, but with 38 golds their
presence in the top two, behind the United States, was never in doubt.
South Korea were the only other Asian team in the top 10. North
Korea, finishing 20th, had their best Games in 20 years, Hong Kong
celebrated cycling bronze and Singapore won their first individual medal
in 52 years.
India couldn't follow Beijing by claiming their second individual
gold, but they finished with two silver medals and four bronze -- their
highest individual total.
Much as expected, China's divers and badminton and table tennis
players missed just two gold medals between them, and their
weightlifters hoisted five titles at London's ExCeL.
But China's shooters were off-target compared to Beijing, winning
only two golds, and their gymnasts dropped from seven victories in 2008
to three on the London apparatus.
China's track hopes went up in smoke when 110m hurdler Liu Xiang, the
2004 champion, heart-breakingly limped out of the heats for the second
Games running with a career-threatening Achilles tendon tear.
But his brave hop down the track to the finish line, symbolic kiss of
the last hurdle, and embrace by his waiting competitors, was one of the
Games' most memorable images.
Meanwhile Sun Yang and Ye Shiwen, 16, led China to their best
performance in the pool, claiming two wins and a world record each as
the team broke through with five titles in one of the Olympics' top-tier
events.
Sun became China's first male Olympic swimming champion in the 400m
freestyle, and then broke the 1500m world record for the second time in
a year.
Ye set a new mark in the women's 400m medley and also won the 200m
medley, while Jiao Liuyang won the women's 200m butterfly. Unproven
doping speculation surrounding Ye was angrily dismissed by Sun.
“People think China has so many gold medals because of doping and
other substances, but I can tell you it is because of hard work,” said
Sun.
“It is all down to training and hard work that we have results.
Chinese are not weaker than those in other countries.” China, South
Korea and Indonesia were also embroiled in one of the Games' worst
scandals, when eight badminton players were disqualified for trying to
lose group ties to secure easier quarter-finals.
South Korea's peerless archers, included the legally blind Im
Dong-Hyun, hit the bull's-eye with three out of four gold medals, and
their shooters added three more at the Royal Artillery Barracks.
They had two more in judo and two in fencing -- but none for Shin
A-Lam, whose tearful, hour-long protest over her loss in the women's
epee semis won sympathy and media coverage, but no Olympic medal.
North Korea's Games made an unpromising start when their women's
footballers were pictured next to the South Korean flag on a stadium big
screen, prompting a lengthy protest.
But tiny, 1.52m (five foot) weightlifter Om Yun-Chol put them on the
gold trail when he lifted three times his bodyweight to win the 56kg
category with a world record-equalling 293kg.
Kim Un-Guk and Rim Jong-Sim also lifted their way to gold at the
ExCeL venue, while An Kum-Ae got judo gold on the opening weekend as
North Korea matched their best ever haul of four titles at Barcelona
1992.
Japan, who are bidding to host the Games in 2020, had high hopes of
emulating their record total of 16 gold medals. But after a near-wipeout
in the judo, they ended with just seven.
South Korea rubbed salt into the wound when they beat Japan, their
fiercest rivals, 2-0 for men's football bronze.
AFP |