Kuwait win first ever Asiad track gold

Kuwait won their first Asian Games athletics gold medal and their first title at the 14th Asiad as Fawzi Al-Shammari came from behind to edge Saudi Arabia's Hamdan O Al-Bishi in the men's 400 metres on Wednesday.

China added another three golds, but others in the men's events were shared as Bahrain took the 800, Qatar won the 3,000 steeplechase and Saudi Arabia enjoyed victory in the triple jump.

The men's 400 had produced an exciting finish at the Asian championships in Colombo last August and was close again with Al-Shammari beating Al-Bishi by 0.02 seconds to equal the Games record of 44.93. Sri Lanka's Rohan Pradeep Handunpurage took bronze.

Both runners have been in top form this season, but Wednesday's victory means Al-Shammari has now beaten his Saudi rival in their last three races.

"I knew I had to push it hard in the last 10 metres. I beat him at the line in March this year and I was lucky to be able to do it again here," said Al-Shammari, who followed his victory by running in the 200 heats to reach Thursday's final.

"Running the 200 heats after the 400 on the same day was a problem but I managed to conserve enough energy. The 400 is my specialist event. The 200 will be a bonus, but I still want a medal."

Al-Shammari had previously struck a lean patch at the Grand Prix final in Paris, where he finished eighth, but recovered to take third place at the Madrid World Cup.

FIELD DESTROYED

Bahrain's Rashid Mohamed destroyed the men's 800 metres field, including pre-race favourites Adam Abdu Adam Ali and Salam Al-Badri Amer of Qatar, to win in one minute 47.12 seconds.

The silver went to India's 21-year-old K M Binu (1:47.57), making his first appearance at a major senior international event after his older sister K M Beenamol won the 800 gold on Tuesday, while China's Li Huiquan (1:47.77) took the bronze.

"I expected to win gold but I was surprised at how tough it was," said Mohamed. "This gold is a first step on the road to Athens for me. Today I won comfortably but I'm sure I can build on this in the future."

China's Liu Xiang won the men's 110 metres hurdles and tied the Games record of 13.30 seconds. The silver went to Japan's 30-year-old Satoru Tanigawa (13.83), who was fifth at the Bangkok Asiad, and South Korea's Lee jung-ho (13.89) took the bronze.

"Beijing was awarded the Olympics on my birthday (13th July) so my long-term goal is to make the final at the 2008 Olympics," said Liu. "My name (Xiang) means flying and that's what I hope to do in Beijing."

Qatar's Khamis Abdullah Saifeldin lived up to pre-race expectations with victory in the men's 3,000 metres steeplechase in a Games record of eight minutes 30.52 seconds.

Qatar's Abubaker Ali Kamal won the silver and Japan's Yoshitaka Iwamizu picked up the bronze.

Asian record holder Hassan Al-Asmari of Saudi Arabia, the pre-race co-favourite with Saifeldin, was a disappointing seventh, while the winner in Bangkok four years ago, Japan's Yasunori Uchitomi, placed fifth.

FAVOURITE WINS

Saudi Arabia's Salem Mouled Al-Mowallad was favourite to win the men's triple jump and duly delivered with 16.60 metres on his fifth attempt to beat the 16.57 set by Lao Jianfeng of China with his second jump. Japan's Takashi Komatsu (16.34) was third.

The Chinese retained their women's pole vault title as Gao Shuying, who at 179 cms lives up to her name which means tall, literally towered over the rest of the field with a Games record height of 4.35 metres, not far off her 4.43 season's best.

Gao's main threat came from Japan's Masumi Ono, who added another silver to the medal she won in Bangkok in a national record she had equalled to take silver in Colombo.

The bronze went to China's Qin Xia by virtue of one less failed attempt at 3.80 metres than Japan's Takayo Kondo.

Li Meiju retained China's shot put gold with a mark of 18.62 metres as South Korea's Lee Myung Son took silver (18.50) and Thailand's Juthaporn Krasaeyan won the bronze (17.53).

The men's decathlon also got underway on Wednesday with Kazakhstan's Dmitriy Karpov leading after five events.

Sri Lanka's golden girl Susanthika Jayasinghe, the Olympic 200m bronze medallist, began her quest for double gold in the sprints by coasting to victory in her 200 metres heat after her gold in the 100 on Tuesday.

In the men's 200 metres heats Japan's Shingo Suetsugu, heir apparent to Koji Ito who won gold in Bangkok, coasted to victory in his heat in 20.45 seconds. He has reportedly recorded sub-20 second times in training.

(Additional reporting by Alastair Himmer)