JILIN, Northeast China, Jan. 31 (Xinhua) --
Kazakhstan broke its gold drought at the sixth Asian Winter Games, winning two
titles in a row in the cross country competitions here on Wednesday.
Kazakhstan, who placed fourth on the medal table of
the 2003 Winter Asiad in Aomori, Japan with seven golds, failed to collect a
victory two days into the medal competitions.
Oxana Yatskaya finally broke the jinx for Kazakhstan
Wednesday morning as she led a 1-2 finish in the women's 5km classical cross
country skiing. She crossed the line with 15 minutes and 57.73 seconds, 1.69
seconds ahead of compatriot Svetlana Malakhova.
"I am honored to win this gold medal," said Yatskaya.
"Chinese skiers are very strong in this event, I am very happy that I can beat
them for the victory."
"The Chinese have been improving very fast, I think
the following events will also be hotly contested," Yatskaya added.
Chinese Wang Chunli, winner of the sprint event on
Tuesday, settled for the third place on 16:02.73.
"I am happy for the bronze," said Wang. "I performed
to my standard, but the Kazakhstan skiers did better."
"There was some fresh snow on the course, which made
it difficult for me. But it's not an excuse because all the skiers faced the
same situation," Wang added.
Maxim Odnodvortsev added another gold for Kazakhstan,
a traditional cross country powerhouse of Asia, taking the men's 30kfreestyle
cross country skiing in one hour, 22 minutes and 44 seconds.
Odnodvortsev's teammate Andrey Kondryshev took home
the silver with 1:24:05 while the bronze was awarded to Japanese Katsuhito
Ebisawa.