China's Lin Dan receives interviews after defeating Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia in the men's singles final match of badminton at the 16th Asian Games in Guangzhou, south China's Guangdong Province, Nov. 21, 2010. Lin Dan won 2-1 to claim the title of the event at Asian Games the first time. (Xinhua/Lu Hanxin)
By sportswriter Zhang Han
GUANGZHOU, Nov. 21 (Xinhua) -- China's Lin Dan finally snatched the only title missing from his international honor collection of badminton here on Sunday, while the hosts came through mixed feelings on track at the Asian Games.
Lin, nicknamed "Super Dan", roared with both fists high in the air after he fought to the 21-13, 15-21, 21-10 win over Malaysia's world No. 1 Lee Chong Wei in the men's singles final late Sunday evening.
"I am happy to win the gold medal," said the 27-year-old. "This is a long-time dream come true. But I will fight on in the future and continue to work hard."
The victory marks a flawless career for the most crowned Chinese, with glories from all the top world competitions, including the Beijing Olympic Games, three world championships, two World Cups, three Surdiman Cups and four Thomas Cups.
In the mixed doubles final earlier, however, the hosts' pair Zhang Nan/Zhao Yunlei were outplayed 21-19, 21-14 by Shin Baekcheol/Lee Hyojung who brought South Korea the only badminton gold medal at the Asian Games.
At the track and field competitions just launching Sunday morning, China lived up to expectations to pocket the men's 20km walking race and women's shot put golds, but failed to impress at the women's 10,000m.
World marathon champion Bai Xue only managed an eighth finish by clocking 32 mintues and 21.29 seconds and had to watch the title slipping to India's Preeja Sreedharan on 31:50.47.
The 21-year-old Chinese long distance star, being bothered by a foot injury, was known as the youngest ever women's world champion in marathon after winning the 2009 Berlin championships to end China's 10-year drought of women's at worlds.
World silver medalist Wang Hao has grabbed the first athletics gold for China, dominating the men's 20km walking race with a time of 1:20:50, and Li Ling, 25, defended her Asiad title of women's shot put at 19.94m.
India won their second athletics title at women's 3,000m steeplechase by Sunil Kumar at 9:55.67, while Bahrain's Dejenee Regassa Mootumaa won the men's 5,000m with 13:47.86 and Tajikistan's Alisher Eshbekov won the men's hammer throw on 76.44m.
There's pure joy for the hosts in the concluding synchronized swimming, as China bagged all three gold medals out of as many events after Sunday's combination victory over strong rivals Japan and Kazakhstan.
The double trap shooting competition also see a China sweep as Li Qingnian took the individual gold with 106 hits, adding to the hosts' double victories in team events. India picked the only gold left as Ronan Sodhi scored 186 hits to win the men's individual.
In the neighboring archery field, South Korea beat China 30-27 in the second shoot-off after both teams tied in the final and first shoot-off to win the women's team archery gold medal.
Fencing finals also saw rivalries between China and South Korea as the women's sabre went to the hosts after beating South Korea 45-40 and the Koreans crushed Kazakhstan 45-31 for the men's epee team gold with China and Japan sharing the lowest podium.
In the events on their way to the finals, the Chinese men's basketball team continued their winning streak by beating strong rivals South Korea 76-66 in Group E.
And so did the Chinese women's volleyball team, who overpowered Mongolia 3-0 on Sunday to remain unbeaten in the preliminaries alongside Kazakhstan.
Their men's counterparts, however, were shown the door out after beaten in straight sets by the reigning Asian champions Japan, who together with Iran, South Korea, Japan and Thailand, made the top four.
Peng Shuai is the one who did make the final as the top tennis local favorite thumped top-seeded veteran Kimiko Date Krumm of Japan 7-6, 3-6, 6-2 in the women's singles semifinals.
