by sportswriter Li Jia
NAGOYA, Japan, Sept. 26 (Xinhua) -- China reached the men's football semifinals at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games for the first time in 28 years with a 3-0 win over Thailand on Saturday, while surprise upsets in table tennis reshaped the men's singles draw. China also showed its strength in diving, sweeping two gold medals on the opening day of competition.
In football, Peng Xiao forced an own goal in stoppage time of the first half, before Hu Hetao doubled the lead early in the second; substitute Zhang Yuning sealed the 3-0 win with a late strike.
China will face South Korea in the semifinals at Nagai Stadium in Osaka on Sept. 30.
"Throughout the match, we showed a very high level in terms of running, competing, attacking and defending. We are very happy to bring this kind of joy and optimism to Chinese football. Now that we have reached the last four, we will continue to give our all and strive to go further," said China head coach Antonio Puche.
Table tennis delivered a major upset for the host as Japan's Tomokazu Harimoto, ranked fourth in the world, was beaten 4-3 by Iran's Noshad Alamiyan, ranked 344th, in the men's quarterfinals. Japan's Sora Matsushima also fell 4-2 to China's Lin Shidong. The two players had already helped Japan secure the men's team title.
China's star paddlers Sun Yingsha and Wang Chuqin, the defending mixed-doubles champions and Olympic gold medalists, were upset by compatriots Kuai Man and Lin Shidong in the final, losing 4-0 and falling short of a third straight title.
In the individual events, Sun Yingsha beat South Korea's Joo Cheon-hui 4-2 to reach the women's semifinals, while Wang Chuqin ousted Chinese Taipei's Feng Yi-hsin 4-0 to advance to the men's semifinals. Wang Manyu also reached the women's semifinals.
With diving getting underway earlier in the day, China made a flying start by sweeping both synchronized events, as Chen Yuxi and Lu Wei triumphed in the women's 10m platform and Wang Zongyuan and Zheng Jiuyuan topped the men's 3m springboard.
In track and field, China's Su Wen won the men's triple jump with a leap of 17.42 meters, breaking the 36-year-old Asian Games record of 17.31 set by compatriot Zou Sixin at the 1990 Beijing Games.
Thailand's Puripol Boonson, the men's 100-meter champion, broke the Asian Games record in the 200 meters in 20.10 seconds. The 20-year-old lowered the 12-year-old mark by 0.04 seconds.
Seventeen-year-old Chen Yujie, the women's 100-meter champion, also remained on course for a sprint double after easing into the 200-meter final.
The men's marathon was won by Japan's Ichitaka Yamashita in 2:10:49, and Bahrain's Shitayew Habte claimed the women's race in 2:27:31.
In men's shot put, Iran's Mohammadreza Tayebise finished first in a Games record of 20.81m, winning his country's seventh gold medal.
Weightlifting saw several world records. DPRK's Ri Won Ju won the men's 70kg title, setting records in the clean and jerk (198kg) and total (349kg), while Japan's Masanori Miyamoto took silver with a 154kg snatch, also a world record. In the 75kg class, Indonesia's Rahmat Erwin Abdullah claimed gold with world records in the clean and jerk (206kg) and total (366kg).
In basketball, South Korea defeated Japan 75-70 to claim the women's gold, while China beat Chinese Taipei 77-64 to take the bronze. ■
