CHANGCHUN, Northeast China, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese women skaters will be heading for Vancouver in a high mood after completing a clean sweep of five golds in the speed skating tournament at the sixth Asian Winter Games where seven Asian records out of eight were broken.
Wang Fei, 25, opened Chinese women's gold haul by winning the 3,000m event, which was a traditional feat of the Japanese team, with an Asian record of four minutes and 13.08 seconds.
Three Chinese skaters, headed by 21-year-old Wang Beixing, seized the top three positions in 1,000m event on the final day of the speed skating tournament at the Asiad.
"It is quite beyond our expectation, and the results are good." said China's speed skating official Xiao Hua here on Thursday after the 10-event tournament concluded. "Our target here was to take four gold medals."
China only grabbed one gold in the last edition of Winter Asiadin Aomori, Japan in 2003.
Wang Fei crowned twice in 3,000m and 1,500m events while Wang Beixing was a double winner in 500m and 1,000m. The gold medal of the newly introduced Asiad event 100m went to 28-year-old Xing Aihua.
"We made well preparation for this tournament, while some of our arch rivals such as Lee Sang-Hwa of South Korea was not in a good form after competing in the Winter Universiade," said Xiao.
"We should look beyond Asia. When it comes to the Winter Olympics, we have only one event which bears chance of winning a gold," said Xiao, citing Wang Beixing's 500m event as the big hope.
However, China's men skaters were comparatively fainter.
"We only bagged two silvers in the men's events, which was a pity," said Xiao.
South Korea won in the 1,500m, 1,000m and 500m events while Japan claimed the titles in 5,000m and 100m.
"South Korea has achieved great improvement in the past two years and has become a great threat to us," noted Xiao. "For Japan, as I know, they are training according to the Olympic schedule, so they are still in adjustment after the Turin Games. They will hit their top form in 2009, one year before the Vancouver Games."
The 6th Asian Winter Games kicked off on Sunday and will conclude on Feb. 4.
Related:
China continues gold rush on snow at Winter Asiad
JILIN, Northeast China, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- China continued gold rush on snow at the 6th Asian Winter Games as Chinese skiers took two golds at the Beidahu ski resort on Thursday.
China's Olympic champion Han Xiaopeng claimed the men's freestyle aerials while woman biathlete Liu Xianying won the 15km individual race.
Sweet victory for Wang Beixing, bigger goals ahead
CHANGCHUN, Northeast China, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- Wang Beixing crossed the finish line first with arch rival Lee Sang-Hwa behind, achieving a sweet revenge against the South Korean teenager.
Lee had out-raced Wang for four times in the 500m speed skating events in the World Cup series this season.
China Liu wins women's 15km biathlon individual gold at Winter Asiad
JILIN, Northeast China, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Liu Xianying took the women's 15km biathlon individual gold medal in 56 minutes and 27.6 seconds at the sixth Asian Winter Games here on Thursday.
Her compatriot Kong Yingchao finished second in 57:34.5 and Inna Mozhevitina of Kazakhstan got the bronze in 1:00:8.6.
