NAGOYA: An Afghan cyclist who once disguised herself as a man won a ‘special’ silver at the Asian Games on Tuesday as China streaked away in the medals table ahead of hosts Japan towards the end of the third full day of action in Aichi-Nagoya.
China extended their dominance in swimming, which is taking place in Tokyo.
They have won 15 of the 20 golds in the pool so far.
But they did not have it all their own way on the night, as 17-year-old Yumeki Kojima won the 400m individual medley in an Asian Games record time of 4min 07.02sec for a Japan one-two.
Watched by Leon Marchand, the teenager now has the French superstar in his sights before the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics.
‘Right now, Marchand is the highest target that I’m aiming for,’ said Kojima.
‘I want to keep getting closer to him, even if it’s little by little, and eventually surpass him.
‘REALLY OVERWHELMED’ An Afghan cyclist who disguised herself as a man to pursue her sporting dreams hopes her silver will inspire women in a country where their freedoms have been sharply curtailed.
Fariba Hashimi powered home second in the women’s road race, calling the triumph ‘something special’.
‘I can’t explain my feelings now,’ said the 23-year-old, who fled Afghanistan afterTaliban authorities returned to power in 2021.
She reflected on how she was attacked with stones and trained dressed as a man when she started out in the sport as a teenager along with sister Yulduz, who is also now a pro cyclist.
‘I was born inside a country where the women who dream are getting attacked, and I’m really happy that I have fought against that,’ said Hashimi, who is now based in Italy.
Mixed martial arts, or MMA, is making its Asian Games debut as it makes an audacious play to one day be on the Olympic stage.
One of the first champions in Games history was Teo Hui Hoon as the Singaporean clinched gold in the women’s traditional -60kg class.
‘I was really overwhelmed when I knew that I had won the match. I’ve never cried before after a fight,’ she said.
SHOOTING WORLD RECORD China may struggle to match their record of 201 golds from their home Games in Hangzhou three years ago but record-breaking shooters Sheng Lihao and Wang Zifei won’t be to blame.
Olympic champion Sheng claimed his third gold at Nagoya alongside Wang in the 10m air rifle mixed team event as they combined for a world-record score of 507.1.
Sheng, a double gold medallist at Hangzhou, had already swept the individual and men’s team titles in the 10m air rifle earlier in the competition.China top the medals table with 31 golds, with Japan a distant second on 11 and South Korea and Kazakhstan joint third with six each towards the end of Tuesday.
Games organisers meanwhile came out fighting, blaming teams for ‘confusion’ anddelays in boarding the cruise ship housing thousands ofathletes.
More than 4,000 people are staying on the Costa Serena in Nagoya’s port, but some had complained of long delays to get on last week.-Agencies