Seoul Gazette - Japan set up North Korea showdown, runner wins again after ban

Japan silenced the partisan crowd in Hangzhou to lead 4-1 at the break and put one foot in the final, as the China players trudged off the pitch into the dressing rooms.

But a China team made up of players from the recent World Cup refused to go quietly and they pulled it back to 4-3 with half an hour left, setting up a grandstand finale.

But Japan kept their concentration and nerve to hold out for victory and teed up a showdown with North Korea on Friday for gold.

North Korea thrashed Uzbekistan 8-0 in the day's other semi-final to set up a repeat of the 2014 final, with striker Kim Kyong Yong scoring four goals.

On the fifth day in track and field, Bahrain's Kemi Adekoya -- who was stripped of the 2018 title for doping -- won 400m hurdles gold.

The 30-year-old won at the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon after switching allegiance from Nigeria, and again came first at Jakarta four years later.

But she was stripped of her 2018 hurdles and mixed 4x400m relay golds after testing positive for the prohibited steroid stanozolol. She was banned for four years.

A former world indoor champion, she claimed at the time her food was spiked.

"I just wanted to fight and get the gold medal, and fight for a new record," she said on Tuesday after clocking a Games-record 54.45sec for gold.

Adekoya, who only recently returned to action, won the 400m title on Saturday.

- Focus on Paris -

China's Wu Yu enjoyed an afternoon stroll to the first boxing gold of the Games as she easily defeated Thailand's Chuthamat Raksat in the final of the women's flyweight (50kg) on unanimous points.

Tajikistan's Davlat Boltaev won the first men's gold with a controversial 3-2 split decision over China's Han Xuezhen in the heavyweight (92kg) division.

Wu, who barely broke sweat, and whose face was completely unmarked, told AFP: "It was as comfortable as it looked."

But the Chinese boxer, who won the world championship in the non-Olympic 52kg weight class in Delhi earlier this year, said she thinks she can do even better.

Gold at the Paris Olympics next year is already on her mind.

"My main rival is myself. I will not be afraid of even the strongest rivals if I keep breaking through my limits and making myself stronger," she said.

"I think it's better to stay down to earth. I am only at the second stage now that I've got a ticket to the Paris Olympics."

- Blockbuster in offing -

In road cycling, Kazakhstan's Alexey Lutsenko, a 2020 stage winner on the Tour de France, won gold in the men's individual time trial by two minutes from China's Xue Ming.

Olga Zabelinskaya of Uzbekistan took the women's crown.

It was a fourth Asian Games gold for Lutsenko, stretching back to Incheon in 2014, but he does not intend to stop there with the road race still to come.

"That's very important to me. I hope that I can get another gold medal for my country," he said.

Arch-rivals India and Pakistan remain on course for a blockbuster men's cricket final.

Explosive opener Yashasvi Jaiswal smashed seven sixes in a sublime maiden T20 century as India opened their first Asian Games campaign with a 23-run defeat of Nepal to reach the semi-finals.

Pakistan kept up their end of the bargain, crushing Hong Kong by 68 runs with experienced all-rounder Khushdil Shah taking 3-13.

K.Im--SG