Day 5 roundup: Liu Xiang-mania sweeps Macao
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2005-11-03 09:15

His winning clocking was 0.16 seconds behind his top time this year and a further 0.08 behind this season's best 12.97 set by Frenchman Ladji Doucoure, who beat Liu into second place in the world championships.

North Korea's gymnast Ri Jongsong performs during the men's floor exercise final at the 4th East Asian Games in Macau November 2, 2005. North Korea's Ri won the gold while South Korea's Kim Seung Il shared the silver with Japan's Naoya Tabara. [Reuters]

"I didn't fall out of the top three in the international meets I entered and has won all the domestic races," he said.

China also won nine athletics titles on Wednesday: the men's 20m walk (Yu Chaohong, 1:23:51), high jump (Huang Haiqiang, 2.23m); the women's 200m (Chen Lisha, 23.78 seconds), 400m hurdles (Huang Xiaoxiao, 55.33 seconds), pole vault (Zhao Yingying, 4.40m), 800m (Liu Qing, 2:00.11), discus (Song Aimin, 64.32m), 20km walk (Wang Liping, 1:34.01) and javelin (Ma Ning, 61.95m).

South Korean Kim Kun-woo took the grueling decathlon by totaling 7,754 points, while his compatriot Lee Jae-hun clocked 1: 48.60 for the men's 800m crown.

Japan nabbed three golds as Shinji Takahira stormed home first in 20.88 seconds in the men's 200m, Takayuki Koike won the men's 400m hurdles in 50.85 and Kumiko Ikeda leapt 6.54m for the women's long jump gold.

Japan expected a gold rush from the swimming pool, but the first day didn't see that happen.

Chinese swimmers made it six out of eight with Japan taking the remaining three golds.

Olympic champion Luo Xuejuan easily won the women's 50m backstroke in 31.67 seconds, one second ahead of runner-up Sayaka Nakamura from Japan.

Chinese Zhang Lin bettered the men's 1,500m freestyle Asian record by 9.25 seconds as he touched the pad first in 15:00.27.

China also won the men's 4x200m relay, men's 100m breaststroke (Zeng Qiliang), women's 200m butterfly (Li Jie) and women's 100m freestyle (Pang Jiaying).