China’s 13-year-old swimming sensation Yu Zidi smashed another Asian Games record for her second gold in as many days on Monday, two years out from the Los Angeles Olympics.
Yu gave another glimpse of her enormous potential in Tokyo as she scorched to victory in the women’s 200m individual medley in 2min 06.10sec.
That was 0.72sec faster than the previous Asian Games record, held by compatriot Yu Yuting, and only 0.40sec off the world record held by Canada’s Summer McIntosh.
It was the fastest time in the world this year.
“I’m very excited and happy,” said the beaming teenager. “This is the result of our whole team’s hard work.”
Yu finished 1.89sec in front of Yu Yuting, with Japan’s Mio Narita third.
It gave her a second gold in as many days after also winning the 200m butterfly.
“I feel even happier winning this second gold medal than I did with the first one,” she said.
Yu became the youngest swimming world championships medallist in history last year when she won bronze as a 12-year-old as part of China’s 4x200m freestyle relay team.
She also finished just outside the medals in fourth in three world individual events.
She has embellished her growing reputation this year, notably with a victory over multiple American Olympic champion Regan Smith in March.
She said she was still learning her craft and there were “points I need to pay more attention to”.
“I’m capable of doing them but maybe I don’t always do them consciously,” she said.
“Once I go over them again in my head, I can execute them.”
Dead heat
The China team won six of the seven golds on offer on the opening day in the pool Sunday but they did not have things all their own way a day later.
Japan’s hotly tipped Shin Ohashi and China’s Dong Zhihao both took gold after a dead heat in the men’s 100m breaststroke.
Ohashi looked to have won it until Dong roared back late in the race and both touched the wall in 58.64sec.
China’s defending champion Qin Haiyang was third.
“I’m really happy to get a gold but it was a tie so it’s a little frustrating,” said Ohashi. “The feeling is 50-50.”
Hong Kong’s Siobhan Haughey defended her title in the women’s 200m freestyle, romping home in a time of 1:54.96.
The 28-year-old finished 1.62sec ahead of silver medallist Li Jiaping of China.
Haughey said “a lot has happened” since she completed the Asian Games 100m-200m freestyle double three years ago in Hangzhou.
“The swimming world has changed so much, there are so many rising swimmers coming up so you never know what’s going to happen,” she said.
South Korea’s Kim Young-beom set a new Games record in winning men’s 50m freestyle gold in 21.66sec.
China’s Xu Jiayu won the men’s 50m backstroke, while team-mate Wan Letian won the women’s event.
China won the men’s 4x200m freestyle relay, overhauling Japan on the final lap.
China’s marksmen were just as ruthless at the Aichi Prefecture General Shooting Gallery.
Olympic champion Sheng Lihao defended his men’s 10m air rifle crown, holding off spirited challenges from India’s Himanshu Dhillon and Rudrankksh Patil. China also clinched both team golds.
Doping case
Thailand’s talented young women’s badminton player Pitchamon Opatniputh became the first known doping case of the Nagoya-Aichi Games.
The 19-year-old returned a positive sample for the banned substance furosemide and has been provisionally suspended, the International Testing Agency said.
The teenager, who is ranked 18th in the world and regarded as a rising star back home, had been due to face China on Tuesday in the team event.
“The athlete has been informed of the case and has been provisionally suspended with immediate effect until the resolution of the matter in line with the World Anti-Doping Code and the OCA Anti-Doping Rules,” the ITA said.
“This means that the athlete is prevented from competing, training, coaching, or participating in any activity, during the Asian Games Aichi-Nagoya 2026.”
Koreas draw
The women’s football group stage meeting between North and South Korea was hotly anticipated but turned into a niggly affair which ended 1-1 in Shizuoka.
Just over 2,000 fans were at the 50,000-capacity stadium which staged matches at the 2002 World Cup, with a group of North Korean fans wearing red t-shirts with some having the country’s flag painted on their faces.
North Korea led through Chae Un Yong’s first-half goal.
Yun Su-jeong’s second-half strike ensured the spoils were shared and the players exchanged tepid high-fives at the end, but did not speak to each other.
The neighbours remain technically at war because the 1950-53 Korean war ended with an armistice rather than a peace treaty.
The boxing began on Monday at Aichi’s Nishio Gymnasium with some shock results in the men’s light-middleweight (70kg) as silver and bronze medallists from three years ago at the Hangzhou Games both lost in the last 32.
Kan Chia-wei of Taiwan, second in Hangzhou, was beaten on a 4-1 split decision by Palestine’s Mohammed Issa.
“I am not satisfied with this result,” said Kan. “I suffered a shoulder injury, so my next goal is to regain my fitness.”
That came moments after Bayramdurdy Nurmuhammedov of Turkmenistan, third in 2023, lost by the same scoreline to Bahrain’s Aly Abdalla.
“He doesn’t have IQ, he just (puts) pressure, pressure, pressure,” said Abdalla after outthinking his marauding opponent. “That’s why he was a little bit hard today because it’s the toughest, such pressure, so there is no chance just to box.”
Palestine baseball ‘wins’
Palestine, who have experienced war in Gaza since October 2023, made their debut in Asian Games baseball.
Though they lost 12-0 to the Philippines their team leader said that just being there “was a win”.
“With everything that’s going on, what we are trying to do is bring hope to people who do not have a lot of it,” said Oney Roberto Guillen Cardenas.
“Just by us being out there on the same stage as countries like Japan … that’s a win in itself.”
Hasan Ammar, who registered his team’s first hit, said: “This is probably the greatest honour of my life, playing for something so meaningful and on such a big stage.
“You know, two of our team-mates were killed in Gaza, and we’re playing for them, and we’re playing for all the people over there.”
