China accelerated its pace of grasping gold medals at the East
Asian Games in Osaka, Japan, on Monday with swimming competitions
started while actions going on in weightlifting.
Chinese swimmers took three of five golds on offer Monday, one more
than their arch rivals of Japan.
Xu
Yanwei is the brightest star in the Osaka pool as she won the first
swimming gold of the Games and then helped the Chinese win the
women's 4x200 meters freestyle relay title.
Xu
clocked 55.02 seconds to take the 100m freestyle event, the Games'
frist swimming final. Her compatriot Liu Yu took the men's 200m
freestyle event.
Japanese swimmers won the men's 100m breaststroke and women's 400m
individual medley titles.
The weightlifting competitions continued on Monday with four gold
medals at stake. Chinese lifters took all the titles in the three
categories they took part in.
The Chinese women's gymnasts totaled 149.250 points to win the team
title, beating Japan by nearly 9 points. South Korea finished third
at 130.875.
But Monday turned to be a sad day for Chinese basketball, both in
men's and women's tournaments. China lost to South Korea in the
tournaments.
The Chinese men's team lost 100-97 to the high-spirited South
Korean team. The new Chinese national team under head coach Wang
Fei is weak in teamwork and defence.
The Chinese women's basketball side suffered their second straight
defeat in two days, losing 99-84 to South Korea, thus having their
hopes shattered for the title in the single round robin
tournament.
After Monday's competitions, China has 10 gold medals to its credit
on the Games' medals table, followed by South Korea and Japan with
six and four gold medals respectively.
(People's Daily 05/22/2001)