Rip-roaring start

China swept the seven gold medals at stake on the first night of the swimming competition at the Asian Games in Hangzhou last night, capping a gold rush by home athletes in the region's answer to the Olympics.

Tokyo Olympics champion Zhang Yufei successfully defended her 200 meters butterfly gold, cruising to victory ahead of teammate Yu Liyan, before helping China to victory in the women's 4x100m freestyle relay final, ahead of Japan and Hong Kong.

Zhang touched in a new Games record time of two minutes, 5.57 seconds.

In the relay, the quartet of Zhang, Cheng Yujie, Wu Qingfeng and Yang Junxuan took gold in 3:33.96 minutes, another Games record.

Wang Shun (men's 200m medley), Li Bingje (women's 1,500m freestyle), two-time world champion Xu Jiayu (men's 100m backstroke), Tang Qianting (women's 50m breaststroke) and Pan Zhanle (men's 100m freestyle) also powered to victories in a show of force by home swimmers.

As expected, China was well ahead at the top of the medals tally with 20 gold medals. South Korea was second with five, followed by Japan and Hong Kong with two each.

China claimed the first gold of the day when Zou Jiaqi and Qiu Xiuping dominated the women's lightweight double sculls rowing to kick off a medal rush for the home nation.

Zou and Qiu finished in 7:6.78 minutes in their final, with Uzbekistan's Luizakhon Islamova and Malika Tagmativa taking silver, almost 10 seconds behind.

It was especially satisfying for Zou, who hails from Hangzhou. "I am very excited as it's my first Asian Games," she said.

"Stepping onto the podium is a new starting point to help us prepare for next year's Paris Olympics," added Qiu.

The hosts soon doubled up on the rowing lake as the men's lightweight double sculls gold was won by Fan Junjie and Sun Man, who finished five seconds clear of India's Arjun Lal Jat and Arvind Singh.

China won six of the seven golds at the Fuyang Water Sports Centre rowing venue, with only Hong Kong's Lam San-tung and Wong Wai-chun getting in on the party by winning the men's pairs.

China's rip-roaring start to the Asian Games also brought golds in modern pentathlon, shooting and wushu.

China's shooters also claimed the women's 10m team air rifle while Huang Yuting took the individual title.

And Sun Peiyuan won the first martial arts gold. He successfully defended his men's changquan wushu title from 2018, ahead of Indonesia's Edgar Xavier Marvelo with Macau's Song Chi-kuan third.

Elsewhere, India's women cricketers ripped through Bangladesh, dismissing them for just 51 in the first semi-final.

They knocked off their target in just 8.2 overs and will face Sri Lanka in today's final of the Twenty20 competition.

President Xi Jinping opened the Games on Saturday night after a delay of a year because of the Covid pandemic.

Read: Hong Kong's golden boys

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