by sportswriter Li Jia
NAGOYA, Japan, Sept. 20 (Xinhua) -- China made a strong start to the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games on Sunday, claiming its first gold medal in the women's team modern pentathlon and setting a world record in shooting.
Chinese swimmers were particularly dominant in the pool, winning six of the seven gold medals on offer and helping China finish the opening day with 11 gold medals.
China successfully defended its women's team title in modern pentathlon to claim the delegation's first gold medal at the Asiad. The team event is decided by the combined scores of each team's top three finishers. China topped the women's team standings with 4,318 points, powered by solid performances from Zhang Mingyu, Wu Xiyao and Meng Xin. Zhang and Wu also took silver and bronze, respectively, in the individual event.
Later in the day, China's Li Liuchang won gold in the men's individual event.
The event marked modern pentathlon's Asian Games debut in its new format, with the obstacle discipline replacing equestrian and offering a preview of the sport's format for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
Discussing the challenges she faced during the transition, Zhang said, "I had relatively little time to train for the obstacle event, so I had to put in extra effort. I'm also a little older than some of the other athletes, which can affect my physical condition."
"But I want to keep moving forward and working hard to overcome these challenges. I believe they are only temporary, and I will continue to work hard," she added.
China could have claimed its first gold earlier in the morning in the men's individual triathlon, but favorite Zhang Xirui had to settle for silver as Japan's Takumi Hojo won the first gold medal of the Games.
Zhang's silver was China's best-ever result in the men's individual triathlon at the Asian Games.
China continued its strong start in the shooting events, winning the women's 10-meter air rifle team title with a world-record score.
In the pool in Tokyo, Chinese swimmers, led by Olympic champions Pan Zhanle and Zhang Yufei, turned in a series of dominant performances on the opening day.
13-year-old Yu Zidi made a winning Asian Games debut in the women's 200-meter butterfly, taking gold in a Games-record 2:05.08 and claiming the first swimming gold medal of the Games. Yu had already gained international attention as the youngest swimmer to win a world championship medal, achieving the feat at the World Aquatics Championships last year at the age of 12.
The momentum continued as world record holder Pan Zhanle successfully defended his 100m freestyle title in 47.61 seconds, finishing ahead of South Korea's Kim Young-beom and Hwang Sun-woo, who took silver and bronze, respectively.
Veteran backstroke specialist Xu Jiayu retained his 100m backstroke title in 51.98 seconds, while distance specialist Li Bingjie won the women's 1,500m freestyle in 15:53.52.
In the sprint events, Tang Qianting successfully defended her women's 50m breaststroke title, clocking 29.45 seconds to lower the Games record of 29.50 she had set just hours earlier.
China also won the women's 4x100m freestyle relay, with Yu Yiting, Zhang Yufei, Cheng Yujie and Wu Qingfeng combining to claim another gold medal.
The only swimming gold China missed went to Japan in the men's 200m individual medley. Tomoyuki Matsushita edged teammate Yumeki Kojima to win the gold. China's veteran Wang Shun took bronze.
China's success continued on the wushu court, where Tong Xin retained her women's taijiquan and taijijian all-around title. In the men's events, athletes from Macao, China finished first and second in the changquan competition.
In table tennis, the tournament's top Chinese players also got their campaigns underway, with Sun Yingsha and Wang Chuqin helping the women's and men's teams advance to the knockout stages as group winners.
China had a tougher time in the men's team sports, with the football team playing to a 0-0 draw with Iran and the basketball team falling 79-70 to Iran to miss out on the bronze medal.
China head coach Guo Shiqiang attributed the basketball team's struggles to fatigue and a lack of experience. "We have many young players who need more experience in big games," Guo said. "The players were very tired in the last two games. We didn't have enough players to rotate, so some had to play heavy minutes and became very tired."
South Korea won the men's basketball gold medal, beating Japan 67-57 in the final.
China led the medal standings with 11 gold, six silver and three bronze medals, followed by host Japan (6-7-7) in second and South Korea (4-3-7) in third. ■
