GUANGZHOU, China: Sun Yang swam the second-fastest 1,500 freestyle race of all time on the last night of an Asian Games pool program that finished with China being disqualified in a relay to finally deliver Kosuke Kitajima a gold medal. Sun won the 1,500 in 14 minutes, 35.43 seconds, within a second of the world record set in 2001 by Australian Grant Hackett, to claim the Asian record and end 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.” He'd finished second to South Korea's Park in the 200 and 400 and thought it was good practice for the 1,500. Park, the Olympic 400 freestyle champion, won the 100, 200 and 400 titles here in Guangzhou before finishing 15 seconds behind Sun for a silver in the last individual race. And 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. He said he'd had an injured shoulder since August and planned to go home for treatment. “Now I am used to the pain,” Kitajima said. “Not swimming the 200 doesn't mean I am retiring,” he assured. “I came to the Asian Games to contribute to the team, but I am not in the best shape.” 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. Taiwan beat Japan 4-3 in 10 innings in the baseball semifinal, earning a spot against South Korea in Friday's final. The South Koreans, led by Cleveland Indians outfielder Choo Shin-soo, beat China 7-1. In the women's football, South Korea edged China 8-7 on penalties to move into a semifinal against archrival North Korea after their last group match was locked 0-0 after extra time. China will play Japan in the other semifinal. World record holder Svetlana Podobedova won the women's 75-kilogram division to give Kazakhstan both weightlifting gold medals Thursday. Olympic champion Ilya Ilyin won the men's 94-kilogram class. 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. South Korea added three more gold medals in shooting to lift its tally to 13 on the range – the most in a single sport the Koreans have ever collected at a single Asian Games. Gold medals at the Asian Games for South Korea earn a waiver from military service. Choo hit a solo home run in the third innings and plans to “just do what I've been doing all along” in the final. He has three home runs at the tournament so far. Indonesia won its first gold of the games when its men's dragon boat crew took the 1,000-meter final. One event China won't dominate is cricket, where the subcontinental countries are strong. Bangladesh's women raced to a comfortable nine-wicket win over China to reach the final against Pakistan, which also beat Japan by nine wickets. Nesar Ahmad Bahawi brought war-torn Afghanistan its first medal by grabbing a silver in taekwondo. He narrowly lost to his old friend and fellow 26-year-old Nabil Hassan of Jordan 4-3 in the men's 80kg final to register the best ever medal in Asian Games taekwondo for Afghanistan.
