Liu breaks 50m backstroke world record and Fu’s heart
JAKARTA: Liu Xiang of China set a new world record in the women’s 50 metres backstroke to win Asian Games gold at Jakarta’s GBK Aquatic Center yesterday.
The 21-year-old Liu clocked a time of 26.98 seconds to become the first woman to swim under 27 seconds in the event, breaking the mark of 27.06 set by fellow Chinese swimmer Zhao Jing at the 2009 World Championships in Rome.
Fu Yuanhui took silver in 27.68 in a 1-2 finish for China and Japan’s Natsumi Sakai, the 2017 world junior champion, took bronze in 27.91.
Fu won the 50 and 100 backstroke titles at Incheon 2014, was world champion in the 50 backstroke in 2015 and picked up an Olympic bronze in the 100 backstroke at Rio de Janeiro in 2016.
China also won the men’s 50 freestyle, Yu Hexin touching in 22.11 to beat Japan’s Katsumi Nakamura by 0.09 with another Japanese swimmer, Shunichi Nakao in bronze position.
Meanwhile Yui Ohashi shook off a slow start to storm home and win the women’s 400m individual medley.
The 22-year-old is competing in her first Asian Games but is the reigning world 200 IM silver medallist.
After falling behind fast-starting Kim Seo-Yeong in the butterfly, Ohashi moved into the lead in the breaststroke leg and pulled away to win in four minutes, 34.58 seconds.
Kim held on for silver and Japan’s Sakiko Shimizu won bronze.
Just minutes after Ohashi’s triumph, Japan’s Yasuhiro Koseki won an extremely tight men’s 200m breaststroke, beating a fast-finishing Ippei Watanabe by a fingernail.
In winning his first Asian Games gold, Koseki hit the wall in 2:07.81 with Watanabe just 0.01 behind. China’s Qin Haiyang won the bronze medal.
In shooting, Saurabh Chaudhary has an Asian Games gold medal at the age of 16 after winning the men’s 10-metre air pistol title on debut in senior competition at Palembang.
Chaudhary, who only took up the sport competitively three years ago and set a junior world record earlier this year, won with a games record of 240.7 in the 24-shot final.
Japan collected silver via 42-year-old former world champion Tomoyuki Matsuda, who was a point behind.
Abhishek Verma joined India teammate Chaudhary on the podium after finishing in third place.
Lebanon won the first gold medal in mixed team trap, with Alain Moussa and Ray Bassil combining to win the final with 43 points, one clear of Taiwan.
In other early finals, Macau picked up their first medal — a gold — when Huang Jun-hua held of Vietnam’s Quoc Khanh Pham in the wushu discipline of Nangun.
The combined Koreas women’s basketball team reached the quarter-finals with an 85-57 win over Kazakhstan.
South Korea are the defending champions, but a gold medal for the combined team won’t count toward their medal tally because it will be shared.