Other Sport
Kuwait win double gold in shooting, Hong Kong take cycling gold
By Peter Auf Der Heyde
Dec 3, 2006, 13:32 GMT

Doha - China led the way again with four golds and others including Hong Kong and Kuwait got their first golds at the 15th Asian Games in the early session Sunday.

China added to their medal haul by taking gold medals in the shooting, as well as winning the women's 58kg weightlifting.

Kuwait's Naser Meqlad was in fact a double-gold medallist when he helped the Middle Eastern country to victory in the men's trap event and also secured the gold medal for himself in the individual event, with compatriot Khaled Almudhaf winning bronze.

Meqlad said that the wind made conditions difficult: 'It does affect me, but everybody competes under the same conditions. I feel the pressure when Manvjit Singh's marks are close to mine. He is a good shooter.'

India's Singh won silver, as he did in the team event, with the bronze in the team competition going to Lebanon.

Another double-gold medallist was China's Tan Zongliang, who won the men's 10 metres air pistol event ahead of North Korean Kim Jong Su and South Korean Jin Jong Oh.

He then helped his team win the team event as well. South Korea won the silver, while the bronze went to Vietnam.

In the men's 50m rifle prone team event Kazakhstan won their first gold medal of the Games ahead of South Korea and China.

In the women's shooting competition, China continued their dominance with Tao Luna winning individual and team gold in the women's 10m air pistol event. Compatriot Wenjun Guo won silver in the individual, ahead of South Korea's Kim Byung Hee.

In the team event India won the silver, while South Korea picked up the bronze.

China's Chen Yanqing set the first world record of the Games when she lifted 111kg in the snatch component of the women's 58kg weightlifting competition.

Chen, who won Olympic gold in Athens, lifted the record mark on her third attempt and then went on to comfortably win the gold medal ahead of Thailand's Wandee Kameaim and North Korean Pak Hyon Suk.

In the men's cycling road race, Wong Kam Po won ahead of Iranian Mehdi Sohrabi, with Park Sung Baek from South Korea taking the bronze.

Earlier, race organizers had to cut the men's road race due to safety concerns. Extremely high winds made it unlikely that cyclists would have finished the race before nightfall and as a result the race was cut from 199.7 kilometres to 156.4.

'The predicted high winds would have had the cyclists finishing in the dark, so we have reduced the race from four laps to three for the safety of the riders,' the cycling competition manager, Graham Sycamore said.

The Asian Games run from December 1 to December 15 and features 424 medal events in 39 different sports.