South Korea's Lee Min Hye broke the Asian Games record to win
the women's 3km individual pursuit to end China's long-time
dominance in the event?on Monday.
Lee led from the start to cover the 3km race in three minutes
44.146 seconds, beating the Asian Games' record by 0.073 seconds,
set by herself on Sunday.
"I feel like I'm flying in the sky. I want to continue beating
the Asian record and join the world stage after this," said
Lee.
Lee thus ended China's perfect winning streak in this event over
the past four Asian Games.
"In the qualifying round, I beat the Chinese riders, so I have
expected today's performance," added Lee.
Li Meifang of China won the silver in 3:45.870, while her
teammate Wang Li took the bronze in 3:49.489.
"I did not get used to the track because my main sport was on
the road. I have not prepared well for this," said Li.
In the men's sprint qualifying events, Josiah Ng Onn Lam of
Malaysia refreshed Chinese Tang Qi's records twice.
The 2002 Busan Games silver medallist clocked 10.537 seconds to
earn him number one seed for the knockout stages.
South Korea's Choi Lae Seon was second fastest in 10.555
seconds, followed by Chinese Tang Qi.
In the women's sprint qualifying events, Chinese cyclist Guo
Shuang broke the newly-established Asian Games record to top the
qualifying list.
Guo, the winner of the 500m individual time trial, smashed the
fresh record of teammate Gong Jinjie by 0.326 seconds with a time
of 11.319 seconds.
"I did better than Saturday (the day when she won the women's
500m time trial). I surpassed my training time, which makes me
really excited," said Guo.
"During the past five years, I have trained in Switzerland, so I
did not know much about Gong, but she also did well today," added
Guo.
In men's team pursuit, two Asian Games record were shattered in
less than one hour, as South Korea refreshed Iran's record.
The South Korean quartet clocked four minutes and 14.534 seconds
to slice 1.985 seconds off the record set earlier in qualification
by Iran.
"We were all in good form. For us, the priority today was to
qualify for the final. We did not think too much about the record,"
said South Korean Jang Sun Jae.
The 2005 and 2006 Asian Championships gold medalists will start
the gold medal race with confidence as they have two ace cyclists
Jang Sun Jae and Hwang In Hyeok, gold and bronze medalists of the
men's 4km individual pursuit.
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(Xinhua News Agency December 12, 2006)