by sportswriter Li Jia
NAGOYA, Japan, Sept. 22 (Xinhua) -- Chinese shooter Sheng Lihao claimed his third gold medal at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games on Tuesday, setting two world records with his teammate, while the Chinese women's volleyball team lifted the title with a commanding 3-0 victory over Japan.
The triumph marked China's 10th women's volleyball gold medal at the Asian Games and a rematch of the Hangzhou Games final between the two sides.
Earlier in the day, Sheng, a two-time Olympic champion, and teammate Wang Zifei won the 10m air rifle mixed team title, setting world records in both qualification and the final. The 19-year-old Sheng has now won three golds in the games, having notched the men's 10m air rifle individual and team titles already.
"I didn't expect to shoot that well. The score was much higher than what I usually get in training, so I think I was a little lucky," Sheng said.
China continued to dominate in the pool. Peng Xuwei defended her women's 200m backstroke title in 2:05.77, breaking the previous Asian record set in 2010.
China's Zhang Zhanshuo, 19, won the men's 1,500m freestyle in 14:42.42 for his second title of the Games. He had anchored China's men's 4x200m freestyle relay victory on Monday. Japan's Tabuchi Kaito and Imafuku Kazushi took silver and bronze respectively.
Li Bingjie retained her women's 400m freestyle title, while China won the men's 4x100m medley relay. Xu Jiayu, Dong Zhihao, Xu Fang and Pan Zhanle clocked 3:27.89 for the title. With the relay gold, Xu and Pan both had collected three gold medals.
Siobhan Haughey from Hong Kong, China defended the women's 100m freestyle title in 52.45 seconds, with China's Yu Yiting and Cheng Yujie taking silver and bronze. Japan's Yumeiki Kojima won the men's 400m individual medley in 4:07.02, ahead of teammate Tomoyuki Matsushita, while China's Wang Shun took bronze.
In gymnastics, Japan ended China's run of 13 consecutive Asian Games titles in the women's all-around. Aiko Sugihara claimed the gold medal with 55.599, while China's Ke Qinqin took silver, finishing 0.4 points behind.
"This is my first Asian Games. I hope to work hard and have the chance to compete at the Asian Games again in the future, and stand on the higher step of the podium in this event," said Ke.
China's Guo Li collected women's cycling road race gold after completing the 90.4-kilometer race in two hours, 50 minutes and five seconds, edging Afghanistan's Fariba Hashimi in a sprint finish. Hashimi took silver while Leung Wing Yee of Hong Kong, China finished third.
China swept Thailand 3-0 in the women's team quarterfinals of badminton, while the men's team edged South Korea 3-2 to advance to the semifinals. China also secured places in both table tennis team semifinals, with the men's team beating Thailand 3-1 and the women's team easing past Uzbekistan 3-0.
After three days of competition, China led the medal table with 32 gold, 13 silver and eight bronze medals. Japan was second with 11 gold, 16 silver and 19 bronze medals, followed by South Korea with six gold, four silver and 17 bronze medals. ■
