China has bagged four gold medals in the first two days of competition at the 16th Asian Athletics Championships, which opened on Thursday in Incheon, South Korea.

 

On Day 1, Defending women's shot put champion Li Meiju, who only managed took seventh position at the Helsinki World Championships last month, won the first gold for the country with her throw of 18.64 meters.

 

Teenager Xie Limei beat compatriot Huang Qiuyan to win the women's triple jump. The 19-year-old, who made a name for herself by winning this year's New York Grand Prix, took the gold with 14.38 meters. Huang was third with her jump of 13.75 m.

 

China's third gold came from the women's 10,000m, when Bai Xue outsprinted Japan's Yuka Sato in the last 400 meters to win in 33 minutes 34.74 seconds.

 

In the men's discus, Iran's Ehsan Hadadi won the gold and set a new championship record of 65.25 meters. The previous record of 65.16 meters set in 1996 was held by China's Li Shaojie.

 

The day's last gold medal went to Japan's Miho Sugimori in the women's 1,500m. She won in a time of four minutes 12.69 seconds.

 

In the second day's competitions on Friday, Olympic champion Liu Xiang, who managed a silver in Helsinki, took the gold in the 110m hurdles for men in a time of 13.30 seconds. He beat compatriot Shi Dongpeng who had to settle for the silver with a time of 13.44 seconds. 

 

 

(China Daily, China.org.cn September 2, 2005)