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The following is issued on behalf of the 2009 East Asian Games (HK) Ltd:
After three days of damp surfaces, disrupted and rescheduled plays, the first gold in the mixed doubles should have dawned on the Victoria Park Tennis Centre court yesterday (December 9) -- the eighth day of the Fifth East Asian Games currently being held in Hong Kong.
But the backlog and the headaches continue to mount for umpires and officials dealing with the Games only programme hiccup.
Otherwise, it was a relatively quiet day in the Games with 15 other gold at stake.
And Hong Kong grabbed another two in squash while China surged to 38 gold, 29 silver and 26 bronze. Japan was not far behind with 29 gold, 26 silver and 29 bronze.
The Kowloon Park Swimming Pool was alive with further splashing action. Eight golds, with Games record set in five competitions. In the four women's events, China ruled the roost with Gao Chang (100m backstroke –record); Sun Ye (200m breaststroke –record); Wang Xinyu (400m freestyle); and the Chinese 4x100m free style relay team setting a Games record with a time of 03:39.75.
When the men took to the pool, two of the four records tumbled. Japanese swimmers, Takuro Fujii and Ryosuke Irie, now familiar names at the pools, shattered records in the 100m butterfly and the 100m backstroke. The other non-record swims belonged to Ryo Tateishi (50m breaststroke) and Takuro Fujii again in the 100m freestyle.
On the floor of the Hong Kong Coliseum, Chinese spikers showed their domination in both the men's and women's gold contests with Japanese teams, but it was not easy as the end results show. Men's final: China 3 Japan 2; women's final: 3-0.
In another powerhouse display in the squash courts of Hong Kong Park Sports Centre, Hong Kong swept to double happiness as the men's and women's team gold came home. In both finals it was the Japanese who had to settle for silver. Earlier the bronze went to women's team from Korea and the men's third place playoff also went to Korea.
Badminton action took over the Queen Elizabeth Stadium, scene of some of Hong Kong's glorious days in table tennis earlier in the week. Most of yesterday's shuttlecock action were teams round robin until the evening semi-final thrillers. Here China beat Hong Kong 3-1 while Chinese Taipei edged out Korea 3-2.
Bowling lanes were asizzle with men's and women's trio and team of five heating up action in three games each.It's another three games same time same place today (December 10).
Under leaden skies the hockey grounds of King's Park saw two women's and a single men's round robin playoffs.
In the Japan and China women's match, there was plenty of mid-field action, until the 28th minute when the Chinese converted a short corner and cracked one past the Japanese goalkeeper. In the second game, the Korean girls muscled past a weaker Hong Kong side 8-0.
In the men's evening encounter, Hong Kong met the boys from Macau with the result 5-0 in favour of the dominating Hong Kong side.
Along the stilled waters of the Shing Mun in Shatin six preliminary rowing competitions were held. With 13 golds at stake, the river scene will froth with real action towards the weekend.
There was a mighty scream in the weightlifting venue when Pak Hyon Suk of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea pushed upward a massive 247.0 kilogrammes of combined weight to a Games record in the women's 63kg class.
This was the first of three golds for the day. In the men's 77kg final it was Kim Kwang Hoon of Korea who lifted a shuddering haul of 352kg to win the accolade, just pipping China's Liao Hui by a single kilogramme.
The real big boys (85kg class) came out in the evening and it was Lu Yong of China who heaved his way to a gold with 370kg, equalling the Games record of eight years ago.
It was cruise-speed winds that prevailed in Stanley where men's and women's windsurfers took to the waters in races 6 and 7 in all different categories. With a day of rest today it's a weekend glide to medal glories.
Ends/Thursday, December 10, 2009
Issued at HKT 01:55
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