India yesterday claimed the first world record of the Hangzhou Asian Games as hosts China snapped up more gold medals and a nine-year-old skateboarder melted hearts.
The Indian trio of Divyansh Panwar, Rudrankksh Patil and Aishwary Tomar blew away the field with a new world best 1,893.7 points to win the men’s 10m air rifle team event on day two of the multi-sports extravaganza.
They beat the previous mark of 1,893.3 set by China last month and in doing so won India’s first gold of the Games.
Photo: AP
“In the 10m event they are both perfect athletes,” Tomar said of his teammates. “Playing with them is huge, it’s really good.”
India claimed their second gold in the afternoon when they defeated Sri Lanka in the final of the women’s cricket by 19 runs.
Another shooting world record fell to Chinese teenager Sheng Lihao in the men’s 10m air rifle with his 253.3 points surpassing teammate Yu Haonan’s 252.8 from Rio four years ago.
“I had good luck in the final. I did quite well today, I was basically smooth,” the 18-year-old said.
In other action, Mazel Paris Alegado, who turned nine in March, said it was “so fun” competing in skateboarding.
Thought to be the youngest athlete in Hangzhou and representing the Philippines, she qualified for the women’s park final and came seventh out of eight.
Alegado, who reportedly comes from California, said she got into skateboarding when she saw her brother doing it at a cousin’s house.
Asked if her brother still skates, she said: “No because he was like: ‘Oh dang, she’s better than me now,’ so he stopped.”
The competition was won by comparative veteran Hinano Kusaki from Japan, aged 15. China’s Chen Ye, also just 15, won the men’s park in skateboarding.
At the Fuyang Water Sports Centre, Zhang Liang became the most successful Asian Games rower of all time.
China’s Zhang won the men’s single sculls to add to his men’s double sculls gold from Sunday and now has five Asian Games titles from four editions.
“I cannot say I am a leader. I do what I should do as a rower, to pursue my goals and dreams,” he said.
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