GUANGZHOU, Nov. 13 (Xinhua) -- Strong results on Friday's track events propelled Japan to close the gap with the host nation on medals table of the 18th Asian athletics championships.
Following victories in most track events on Friday, Japan won five more titles to shorten the gap with China, who topped the medal standings with 15 golds by now, while Japan stood second with eight.
Japan's Kawasaki Mayumi clocked one hour and 30.12 minutes to win the women's 20km walk in the morning, while Chinese Yang Yaweit ook the silver, timing 1:34:11. The bronze went to Svetlana Tolstaya of Kazakhstan in 1:36:42.
Liu Hong of China, fourth at the Beijing Olympics and bronze in this year's Berlin Worlds, took an early lead but was disqualified in the middle of the race.
"The Chinese players are quite strong," said Kawasaki, who finished 10th in the 2007 Osaka Worlds. "I tried my best to trail Liu in the race. And if I can control my rhythm better, I think I will get better result. I am so happy to win."
Japan continued its good luck in the evening. Narisako Kenji and Kubokura Satomi claimed the men's and women's 400m hurdles gold respectively.
Narisako, 25, winner of the event in the Doha Asian Games, won the race with a last-gasp dash to clock 49.22, while Indian JosehpG Ganapathiplackal Abraham took the silver in 49.96. The bronze went to Mubarak S Al-nobi of Qatar in 50.19.
Satomi, silver medalist of the event in Doha Asian Games, exploded out of the starting blocks and hit the finish line first in 56.62.
Moraseela Mohd Khalid trailed in 57.15 to take the silver, while the bronze went to Natalya Asanova of Uzbekistan in 59.37.
In the women's 200m final, the 21-year-old Takahashi Momoko, 7th in the event at Berlin world championships in August, led from the start to win the race in 23.53.
Vu Thi Huong of Vietnam took the silver in a seasonal best 23.61, while Jiang Lan gifted China a bronze in 23.65.
Japan also clinched the gold in the men's decathlon by Tanaka Hiromasa. Iran's Hadi Sepehrzad took the silver, while Chinese ZhuHengjun finished third.
China only pocketed two gold medals out of the 11 on offer on Friday. Teenager Zhou Haiyan, winner of the women's 1,500m final on Wednesday, clinched her second gold at Asian championships by winning the women's 800m final.
"I was not relaxed after the National Games last month," said Zhou, winner of the women's 800m final at the National Games. "I hope I can get better results in next year."
Her winning mark was 2:04.89, beating Margarita Matsko of Kazakhstan, the runner-up, by 0.42 seconds. The bronze went to Truong Thanh Hang of Vietnam in 2:05.33.
The other gold was claimed by Song Aimin in the women's discus throw, who finished 63.90m. Her compatriot Ma Xuejun took the silver with a personal best 63.63m. Indian Krishna Poonia stood third in 59.84m.
Kazakhstan won its second gold at Asian championships as Roman Valiyev clinched the gold of the men's triple jump in 16.70m.
Zhu Shijing gave China a silver in 16.67m, while the bronze also went to Kazakhstan as Yevgeniy Ektov finished 16.49m.
United Arab Emirates' Omar Alsalfa broke Japan's domination in the men's 200m final to gift his country its first gold at the Asian championships.
Alsalfa finished in 21.07, only 0.01 second faster than Japanese Takahira Shinji, the runner-up. The bronze also went to Japan as Saito Hitoshi stood third in 21.10.
Besides, Sri Lanka and Iran also tasted their first gold as Manjula Kumara Wijesekara and Sajad Moradi triumphed in the men's high jump and 800m final respectively.
