Superstar hurdler Liu Xiang won redemption Wednesday in front of home fans for his Beijing Olympic disaster by claiming Asian Games gold on a day tarnished by a second positive doping test. Liu contributed to his country's tally by winning the 110m hurdles in front of 80,000 screaming fans at Aoti Main Stadium and an estimated television audience of up to 600 million.
-- China achieve a hat-trick of women's hockey medals
The former Olympic champion and world record holder crossed the line in a season-best time of 13.09 seconds ahead of team-mate Shi Dongpeng (13.38) and South Korea's Park Tae-Kyong (13.48). It was Liu's third successive Asiad gold after claiming the title in 2002 and 2006.
His win came 27 months on from his calamitous outing in Beijing, when he limped out of his heat with an Achilles tendon injury to shatter the hopes of a nation. "I didn't expect to run 13.09. I thought of running about 13.20," he said. "We are very proud to add a gold and a silver medal to the Chinese team." His gold was one of three China won in track and field, including Li's pole vault triumph.
Su Xiongfeng denied double defending champion Hussain al-Saba of Saudi Arabia a third title with a best of 8.05m in the men's long jump while Iran's Ehsan Hadadi defended his discus title with a best of 67.99m. Meanwhile, Uzbek wrestler Jakhongir Muminov became the second athlete to fail a drugs test. The 23-year-old did not win a medal. The Asiad, which began on November 12, has seen one previous drugs scandal, also involving an Uzbek athlete who was also named Muminov, although they are not related.
Judoka Shokir Muminov won a silver medal but had it taken away after testing positive for methylhexaneamine, a stimulant which was the same drug involved in Wednesday's case. South Korea are second in the medals table and its coaches and competitors were told to maintain cordial relations with rival athletes from North Korea after an artillery attack on a South Korean island Tuesday.
"I told coaches that our athletes should just act normally around or with North Korean athletes," said Lee Kee-Heung, head of the South Korean athletic delegation, according to Yonhap news agency. Defending champions China, meanwhile, achieved a hat-trick of women's field hockey gold medals by ousting South Korea 5-4 in a penalty shoot-out. Elsewhere, Malaysia's Puvaneswaran Ramasamy won the 55kg kumite (sparring) gold to become the first karate competitor to climb the podium at five straight Asian Games.
Medals table The Asian Games medals table at the end of Thursday's action (gold, silver, bronze, total):
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G S B T
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China 173 93 86 352
South Korea 71 59 81 211
Japan 36 66 74 176
Iran 16 10 19 45
Taiwan 12 12 33 57
Thailand 9 7 30 46
Hong Kong 8 14 15 37
Malaysia 8 14 11 33
Kazakhstan 7 14 32 52
India 7 13 26 46
Uzbekistan 5 13 19 37
North Korea 5 10 18 33
Indonesia 4 9 11 24
Singapore 4 7 6 17
Kuwait 3 5 1 9
Qatar 3 4 5 12
Saudi Arabia 3 2 4 9
Bahrain 3 0 3 6
Philippines 2 2 9 13
Mongolia 1 2 9 12
Kyrgyzstan 1 2 1 4
Pakistan 1 2 1 4
Macau 1 1 2 4
Jordan 1 1 1 3
Tajikistan 1 0 3 4
Vietnam 0 14 12 26
Myanmar 0 5 3 8
UAE 0 3 0 3
Lebanon 0 1 2 3
Afghanistan 0 1 1 2
Bangladesh 0 1 0 1
Iraq 0 0 2 2
Laos 0 0 2 2
Nepal 0 0 1 1
Oman 0 0 1 1
Syria 0 0 1 1
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