China saw no hope of clinching the women's ice hockey title with
straight losses in the round-robin matches at the 6th Asian Winter
Games on Friday.
The Chinese women, ranked atop in Asia and seventh in the world,
took an early lead at 6:06 but were overtaken by Kazakhstan and
lost it 3-1.
The Kazaks, second-ranked in Asia, will face Japan in the final
round, which decides the winner.
In the men's tournament, DPR Korea eased past the United Arab
Emirates 9-2 to lock the fifth position. In the match for the
seventh place, Kuwait trounced Malaysia 10-2 while Thailand edged
out Hong Kong, China 4-3 to settle on the ninth position.
(Xinhua News Agency February 3, 2007)