Record-breaking China earn highest golds at 19th Asian Games

AFP, Hangzhou :
Hosts China finished with a record 201 gold medals as the curtain came down on two weeks of triumphs and concluded at the Asian Games in Hangzhou on Sunday.

The biggest Asiad ever wrapped up later in the day with a closing ceremony at the 80,000-capacity Olympic stadium, with China handing over to Japan for 2026.

The Games normally happen every four years but Nagoya-Aichi has a shorter run-up because Hangzhou was postponed by a year due to China’s now-abandoned zero-Covid measures.

Taiwan’s Gu Shiau-shuang won the final gold when she successfully defended her title in the women’s karate -50kg kumite class.

But it was the hosts who dominated the overall medals table, their 201 gold medals beating the 199 they collected at Guangzhou 2010.

Their exploits across the 40 sports at the Games reinforced China’s status as Asia’s sporting superpower, topping the medals table at every Asian Games since 1982.

With about 12,000 athletes in total, this was the biggest Asian Games in history.

Organisers would congratulate themselves on a job well done, in what was China’s return to staging a major sporting event following the pandemic.

Crowds waving mini Chinese flags regularly filled up the 54 venues.

“Technically we have had one of the finest Asian Games ever,” said Olympic Council of Asia acting Director General Vinod Kumar Tiwari.

“We have had 97 Games records, 26 Asian records and 13 world records, so the standard has been very, very high and we are very happy with it.”