GUANGZHOU, China: Saudi Arabia edged the United Arab Emirates for Asian Games equestrian gold in a battle of Gulf royal elites Monday. Defending team jumping champion Saudi Arabia, with Prince Abdullah Miteb Al-Saud, a former Olympian, in its squad, saw off the UAE, which featured Sheikh Rashid Al-Maktoum and Sheikha Latifah Al-Maktoum. “I'm crying because I'm so happy,” said Sheikha Latifa, after the UAE took silver following a jump-off to beat Hong Kong. Saudi Arabia added a silver and a bronze to its medal tally today. While Yasir Al-Nashri won the silver in the prestigeous 100 meters, just missing the gold by 0.02 seconds to China's Lao, Yousef Mashrahi clinched the bronze in the 400 meters. China's Liu Xiang lit up the Games Monday with his long-awaited debut in the 110m hurdles but it was teammate Lao Yi who stole the show by winning the coveted 100m title. Liu's presence, 27 months on from his calamitous outing at the Beijing Olympics, guaranteed a 75,000-capacity sell-out at the Aota Main stadium, and he did not disappoint. The former Olympic champion and world record holder cruised through his heat in 13.48sec with his coaches believing 13.30sec should be enough to win the gold medal Wednesday. While the focus was on Liu, Lao came from nowhere to win the men's 100m crown in 10.24 seconds, making the most of Asian record holder Samuel Francis of Qatar being disqualified from his semifinal earlier in the evening. Lao narrowly edged Saudi Arabia's Yasir Al-Nashri by 0.02 seconds. Oman's Barakat Al-Harthi was third after clocking 10.28. Japan's Chisato Fukushima clinched the women's 100m in 11.33 seconds ahead of Kazakhstan's Guzel Khubbieva, the defending champion, and Vietnam's Vu Thi Huong. Other track titles went to Kazakh Olga Tereshkova in the women's 400m while Qatar's Nigerian-born Femi Ogunode took men's gold over the same distance. The field events were dominated by China with Olympic bronze medallist Zhang Wenxiu defending her women's hammer title and Yang Yansheng clearing 5.50m for men's pole vault honours. Their successes ramped the hosts' gold medal tally up to 154 with South Korea on 61 and Japan on 32. Iran are next best on 12. The day was also notable for 1,500m world champion Youssef Saad Kamel failing to get through the heats. The Kenyan-born athlete blamed it on injury. “I got an injury on my right knee in June. I told my team officials but they didn't listen to me,” he said. “They pushed me to come here and that's why I'm here. I can't achieve anything with an injury.” Hong Kong added to its haul when veteran cyclist Wong Kam Po won the men's individual road race in controversial circumstances. South Korea's Park Sung-baek pipped the reigning champion to the line but was ajudged to have swerved in front of him at a crucial moment and after lengthy deliberations was relegated to 19th. Japan's Takashi Miyazawa claimed silver and China's Zou Rongxi the bronze. Meanwhile, China's all-conquering divers hit the water with Shi Tingmao and Wang Han taking gold in the women's 3m synchronized springboard and Yang Liguang and Zhou Luxin winning the men's 10m synchronized platform. On the football field, Japan upset defending champion North Korea 1-0 in the women's football final, gaining revenge for losing to them in the decider four years ago in Doha. South Korea beat China 2-0 in the bronze medal match. Elsewhere, China's cricket dreams were shattered with a 128-run thrashing by Pakistan, with captain Khalid Latif smashing the first century of the tournament. He finished unbeaten on 103 as Pakistan made 183-1 off their 20 overs. China could only manage 55-9 in reply. – Agence France
