Drugs and drama on penultimate day

A blood-inspired marathon win and an emotional triumph for Iran's footballers dominated the penultimate day of the Asian Games in Busan on Sunday as a drug scandal rocked India's athletics team.

With 42 more gold medals settled ahead of the last day of action, one of the most determined individual performances on Sunday came from North Korean marathon runner Ham Pong-Sil.

Suffering from a stomach ache attributed to living in the famine-ravaged Stalinist state, Ham was driven to the finish line by a blood-written message on her wrist from friends, and thoughts of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il.

"I could feel the Great Leader Kim Jong-Il was looking after me, and I was able to finish the race well," she said after finishing in 2 hours 33 minutes 35seconds.

"There was a blood-written promise (to win) on my wrist from my friends."

Her time may have been modest, but it was more than enough for Japan's Harumi Hiroyama and Hiromi Ominami who finished second and third respectively.

Ham later revealed the effects of living in the starving North began to take their toll near the end of the 42.2km race.

"When I got to the top of the hill at the 40km mark I felt a lot of stomach ache, but I didn't give up," Ham said.

"I haven't been eating food in my country, and I think maybe I had digestive problems."

With only the men's marathon to be run on Monday, China heads the athletics medal table with 14 gold, most of them in women's events, after winning three of eight finals on Sunday.

Indian athletics officials spent the day digesting the news that women's 1,500 metres gold medallist Sunita Rani had returned a positive sample following her victory in the race last Thursday.

Jagdish Tytler, chef de mission of India's Asian Games team, said the 22-year-old runner had protested her innocence at a hearing convened by Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) officials on Friday.

She is reported to have tested positive for the banned steroid nandrolone but Indian officials insisted they had not been told of the substance detected in her urine sample.

Long after the morning athletics events had packed up from the Busan Main Asiad Stadium, all eyes were back on the arena in the evening for Iran's football final against Japan.

Iran, who had been forced to regroup after skipper Ali Daei withdrew from the squad last week following the death of his father, successfully defended their 1998 title with a 2-1 win.

Javad Kazemeyan and Mohsen Bayatiniya were the goalscoring stars of the night but they had to survive a nervous last few moments when Satoshi Nakayama grabbed a late reply.

The Asian Games' boxing competition climaxed with 12 gold medals and surprisingly little in the way of controversy following various juding rows earlier in the week.