|
About 9,900 athletes and officials from the 44 member countries and regions
competed in 38 sporting disciplines at the 14th
Busan Asian Games in Korea from Sept 29th till the 14th Oct.
Organised by the Olympic Council of Asia
which presides over a vast geographic area, that includes the Far East
and the Middle East, as well as some countries from the former Soviet
Union. The sailing competition got underway in 12 classes and as expected
hotly contested by the developing regions. May the best sail trimmers
win! More information and other sports results can be found at... http://www.2002busanasiad.org/Eng/
while the site is maintained.
XIV Asian Games -
SAILING
Final Report
by ISAF News
Fri, 11 Oct 2002
The XIV Asian Games is the first major
multiple discipline event to be held in Korea since the Olympic Games
in Seoul 1988, with many of the regions top international athletes competing
and the medals hotly contested in the sailing regatta.
At the Olympic games in Seoul 1988, sailing
was held at the Busan Yachting Centre
on the southern coast of the country. It was here again that the recently
concluded Asian Games held their sailing event, in the waters between
the East China Sea and the Sea of Japan in an area renowned for both strong
winds and currents.
 The
event is a perfect indicator for some of the Asian countries to catch
a glimpse of who could well be competing in the Olympic Regatta at Athens
2004.
16 Gold medals
were awarded in the various classes competing, from the Olympic 470 and
Mistral to the Junior Optimist, in a regatta that saw very few of the
eleven scheduled races not completed for all classes. The different nations
within the Asian region included competitors from both China and Japan,
Korea, Taiwan, Pakistan, India, and the middle eastern countries of Qatar
and Kuwait. Here we bring you a class-by-class round up of the XIV Asian
Games.
Korea Dominant-
Overall
the host nation had an excellent Games in the sailing event with a total
tally of six gold medals out of a possible fourteen.
420
Men
Lee Dong Woo and Park Jong Woo (KOR) sailing on their native waters dominated
the 420 fleet throughout the week. They led by a formidable nine point
margin going into the penultimate race out of ten sailed, and with a first
and a second in the last two races, guaranteed their gold medal. VONGTIM
Damrongsak/ MUSIKUL Sittisak (THA), winners of race eight were also fairly
consistent finish second, but the Chinese pair of TANG Mingfeng/MA Zhicheng
battled hard to win the bronze medal on the final day.
1 LEE Dong Woo and PARK Jong Woo - Korea
2 VONGTIM Damrongsak and MUSIKUL Sittisak - Thailand
3 TANG Mingfeng and MA Zhicheng - People's Republic of China
470
Men
Jung Sung Ahn and Kim Dae Young won
the 470 men’s fleet counting no less than 7 firsts in the nine boat
fleet. Ranked 119 in the ISAF World Sailing Rankings, their position at
the top in this regatta was never in any doubt. Second placed SEKI Kazuto/TODOROKI
Kenjiro (JPN), ranked fortieth in the ISAF World Sailing Rankings, finished
fourteenth at the Test Event in Athens this year and should look to qualify
their country for the Olympic Games in Athens 2004. CHUNG Pei Ming/TAN
Wearn Haw (SIN) finished in the bronze medal position after a close finish
for silver.
1 JUNG Sung Ahn and KIM Dae Young - Korea
2 SEKI Kazuto and TADOROKI Kenjiro - Japan
TAN Wearm Haw and CHUNG Pei Ming - Singapore
Laser
Men
Korean dominance continued in the Laser class, KIM Ho Kon taking the gold
medal without dropping a race, with Kevin Lim (MAS) ranked just outside
the top100 finishing second, Suzuki Kunio (JPN finished third in a class
that summed up the apparent home advantage in the tricky conditions.
Laser
men
1 KIM Ho Kon - Korea
2 LIM Leong Keat Kevin - Malaysia
3 SUZUKI Kunio - Japan
Mistral
The fleet was split between light
and heavy men in the Mistral class with both China and Japan featuring
in the medals in both. SULAKSANA I Gusti Made Oka (INA) claimed gold in
the heavy division, with MO Zehai (CHN) second. ZHOU Yuanguo (CHN) won
the light division after a close fought final day with HOMRARUEN Arun
(THA), who eventually finished second.
Mistral
heavy men
1 SALAKSANA I Gusti Made Oka - Indonesia
2 MO Zehai - People's Republic of China
3 KENJO Motokazu - Japan
Mistral
men light
1 ZHOU Yuanguo - People's Republic of China
2 HOMRARUEN Arun - Thailand
3 INOUE Ikuo - Japan
Raceboard
The non Olympic Raceboard fleet was also split into light and heavyweight,
SUN Maochun (CHN) winning the heavy fleet division comfortably and, OK
Duck Pil (SIN) overtaking GAO Chuanwei (CHN) in the final stages of the
event to take the gold medal in the light division.
Raceboard
Heavy men
1
SUN Maochun - People's Republic of China
2
MOOHAMMADKASEM Suhaimee - Thailand
3
HONG A Ram - Korea
Raceboard
light men
1 OK Duck Pil - Korea
2 GAO Chuanwei - People's Republic of China
3 CHAN King Yin - Hong Kong, China
 Optimist
Boys
In winning the final five races
Iitsuka Shibuki (JPN) turned what was looking like a close regatta for
him, into a strong gold medal, but with only two results out of the top
3, he showed consistency and maturity to finish first. Zhu Ye (CHN), looked
excellent in the first couple of days, scoring three firsts in the initial
five races, however, a twelfth and a fifth in races 6 and 7 gave the upper
hand to the Japanese sailor. Third placed Teo Wee Chin (SIN) also won
two of the eleven races sailed.
Optimist
boys
1
IITSUKA Shibuki - Japan
2
ZHU Ye - People's Republic of China
3
TEO Wee Chin - Singapore
Optimist
Girls
In the girls fleet of nine boats, it was the Chinese, Xu Lijia who claimed
the gold medal from KIUCHI Yoko (JPN), who herself moved up from the bronze
medal position by winning the final two races to take silver from Sarah
Lin (SIN)
Optimist
girls
1 Xu Lijia - People's Republic of China
2 Kiuchi Yoko - Japan
3 Tan Wei Lin Sarah - Singapore
420 Women
The women’s 420 fleet, which was closely fought, saw only nine races
out of the scheduled eleven completed and was topped by SONG Xiaqun and
WANG Yan (CHN). They won eventually by seven points from second placed
HER Jung Eun and KIM Suk Kyong (KOR), but in truth only ten points separated
the top three. HUANG Shiqi Joan and TOH Liying (SIN) finished third.
420
Women
1 Wang Yan and Song Xiaqun - People's Republic of China
2 Kim Suk Kyong and Her Jung Eun - Korea
3 Toh Liying and Huang Shiqi Joan - Singapore
Europe Women
Lu Chungfeng (CHN) won the Europe Women convincingly
Europe
Women
1 Lu Chunfeng - People's Republic of China
2 Sato Maiko - Japan
3 Hong Jin Young - Korea
Mistral Women
ISAF World Ranked number one Lee Lai Shan, had little to trouble her in
the Mistral Women class. The 1996 Olympic gold medallist and ISAF World
Sailor of the same year won all but two races, she did not need to finish
the final two to be assured of a gold medal in the XIV Asian Games. Yin
Jian (CHN) finished with a silver medal, only three points ahead of Imai
Masako in the bronze medal position.
Mistral Women
1 Lee lai Shan - Hong Kong, China
2 Yin Jian - People's Republic of China
3 Imai Masako - Japan
Open Fleets - Enterprise
The
Enterprise class was won by JUN Joo Hyun and JUNG Kuen (KOR) sailing on
home waters, once again showing how it can be used to their advantage,
in second place was ARSHAD Shehryar and MUHAMMAD Riaz (PAK) with a string
of second places.
Enterprise
Open
1 Jun Joo Hyun and Jung Kuen - Korea
2 Arshad Shehryar and Muhammad Riaz - Pakistan
3 Mongia Aashim and Mahesh Ramachandran - India
Laser
Radial
The
Laser Radial class saw Shen Sheng (CHN) winning all but three races to
take the gold whilst Jin Hong Chul (KOR) won the OK by only one point
from Mongia Nittin. (IND)
Laser
Radial Open
1 Shen Sheng - People's Rep. of China
2 Kim Jung Gon - Korea
3 Chaudhary Rajesh - India
OK
Dinghy Open
1 Jin Hong Chul - Korea
2 Mongia Nitin - India
3 Puangnak Veerasit - Thailand
|
