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Agony and ecstasy in pool for ChinaAdjust font size:
  Sun Yang of China swam the second-fastest men's 1,500m freestyle race of all time to pump up the crowd on the last night of swimming at the Asian Games. Minutes later, jubilation turned to heartbreak as China's men's relay team was disqualified, handing the gold medal to Japan. Sun won the 1,500m in 14 minutes, 35.43 seconds, within a second of the world record set in 2001 by Australian Grant Hackett. Sun set an Asian record and ended Park Tae-hwan's run of three gold medals in the freestyle events. "I am very satisfied with my time. I achieved the goal my coach set for me. I am in good shape," said Sun, who covered his face with his hand to hide his emotion when he saw his time flash up on the scoreboard. "I haven't thought about breaking the world record." Just when it looked as if China had capped it off with a victory in the 4x100-meter medley relay, officials ruled an illegal second change. That elevated Japan to gold, giving four-time Olympic breaststroke champion Kitajima his first gold medal of the games, almost by default. After disappointing fourth-place finishes in the 50 and 100 breaststroke, Kitajima withdrew from his favored 200. He swam in the heats of the relay to qualify for a medal, but didn't contest the final as he has battled an injured shoulder since the summer. China finished with 24 golds in the pool to dominate the competition. Japan was next with nine and South Korea finished with four. In 2006 at Doha, China and Japan split the golds with 16 each. There were dramatic finishes in baseball and women's football, too. Chinese Taipei beat Japan 4-3 in 10 innings in the baseball semifinal, earning a spot against South Korea in today's final. The South Koreans, led by Cleveland Indians outfielder Choo Shin-soo, beat China 7-1. South Korea wins In women's soccer, South Korea edged China 8-7 on penalties to move into a semifinal against North Korea after their last group match was locked 0-0 after extra time. Chinese star hurdler Liu Xiang arrived in time to see China collects its 100th gold medal in Guangzhou - on only the sixth day of competition. He's one of the biggest stars of the games although this time the public knows he's still on the comeback trail. Liu told Chinese TV he was more focused on finishing the race in a decent time than winning it. The heats start next Monday. "I haven't competed for several months. I still hope to post a result I'm happy with - I also want to be relaxed," he said. China picked up six of the seven golds on the last day of the rowing competition, and the Chinese women won the first dragon boat race. South Korea added three more gold medals in shooting to lift its tally to 13 on the range. Indonesia won its first gold of the games when its men's dragon boat crew took the 1,000m final. One event China won't dominate is cricket. Bangladesh's women raced to a comfortable nine-wicket win over China to reach the final against Pakistan, which defeated Japan. |
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