The first gold medal of the 20th Asian Games was won on Sunday by host nation Japan as a 13-year-old swimmer from China started in blistering form on the opening day of the multisports extravaganza.
Japan’s Takumi Hojo won the men’s individual triathlon in Gamagori city near Nagoya with China’s Zhang Xirui second and Kazakhstan’s Arlan Zhanabay taking bronze.
It was the first of 469 gold medals to be awarded at a two-week spectacle that has more athletes than the Olympics.
Action also began in the swimming pool, where Yu Zidi, who does not turn 14 until next month, was fastest by far in the women’s 200m butterfly heats.
Teenager Yu touched almost 2.70 seconds ahead of compatriot Chang Mohan and will be a hot favourite to take her first major gold in Sunday evening’s final.
China’s men’s 100m freestyle world record holder and Olympic champion Pan Zhanle also went through fastest to the final in 48.07sec, but was only 0.06sec quicker than South Korea’s Hwang Sun-woo.
However Pan fired a warning to his rivals for gold: “I think tonight I will be better.”
The Games were officially declared open on Saturday by Japan’s Emperor Naruhito but there were a large number of empty seats at the 30,000-capacity stadium in Nagoya.
It sounded the starting pistol on two weeks of intense action as the continent’s finest athletes compete in more than 40 sports before the curtain comes down on October 4.
The event in Nagoya and Aichi prefecture has 2028 Olympics places up for grabs but has been dogged by a series of problems in the build-up.
Accommodating the more than 11,000 athletes and 6,000 officials has stretched organisers to the limit after they decided not to have a traditional athletes’ village to save money.
Competitors instead are staying in a combination of temporary container-style huts, hotels and cruise ship the Costa Serena.
– Stranded athletes –
Some athletes were left stranded at the airport when transport failed to turn up and several teams have complained about the quality of the huts, including the beds being too short.
And Games organisers were forced to offer “deepest apologies” after North Korea’s national anthem was played on Friday for South Korea’s men’s hockey team before a preliminary match.
Triathlete Hojo finished the 750m swim, 20km bike ride and 5,000m run in 52min 56sec, nine seconds clear of Zhang with Zhanabay a further six seconds behind in third.
“As it’s our first gold medal, it’s given the Japanese team a real boost,” said the 30-year-old Hojo, whose win will qualify him for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
“I was really fired-up. Even the rain held off, and I was in top form right up until I stood on the starting line,” added Hojo, who also won the Asian Games test triathlon a year ago on the same course.
China turned the tables later in the women’s individual triathlon, where Lin Xinyu improved on her silver medal at the last Asian Games in Hangzhou by winning in 57min 37sec.
Huang Anqi completed a China one-two, 21 seconds behind, with Japan’s Manami Hayashi taking the bronze in 58:36.
As always at the Asian Games — which started in 1951 — Olympic staples such as athletics and swimming will sit side-by-side with regional favourites like sepak takraw and kabaddi.
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