JAKARTA, Thursday: South Korea's Yeo Seo-jeong wept as she vaulted her way to victory at the Asian Games on Thursday in a tense final that saw her snatch gold from 43-year-old Oksana Chusovitina in the dying moments.
The 16-year-old's win was the second of the day for Korea, stopping gymnastics giants China in their tracks after they claimed all four golds on the first three days of the competition.
It came after Kim Han-sol secured gold in the men's floor -- the opening apparatus final -- with a swaggering routine, much to the delight of the vocal pack of South Korean fans madly waving flags and whooping.
Compatriot Yeo said she was happy with her performance in the women's vault but was focused on Tokyo 2020, where she is intent on winning a gold to dedicate to her father Yeo Hong-chul.
The older Yeo won a silver medal on vault at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, but never secured an Olympic gold.
"I want to go there and win gold for him," she said after securing the top spot with 14.387.
Runner-up Chusovitina, from Uzbekistan and the oldest female gymnast in the competition by far, said that "silver was like getting gold".
She stepped on to the podium with a score of 14.287, pushing North Korea's Pyon Rye Yong into the bronze medal position with 13.875.
The men's floor final was also full of drama as Taiwan's Tang Chia-Hung, who had led from the outset, was pipped by the second-last gymnast to perform, 22-year-old Kim.
The Korean's 14.675 pushed Tang into silver medal position with 14.425.
NORTH KOREAN MAKES EPIC LIFT TO WIN GOLD
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| Choe Jon Wi epic lift |
Choe Jon Wi pulled out the greatest lift of his life to edge a titanic battle of the Koreas and secure the fourth weightlifting gold for the North in an epic 77kg men's final Thursday.
Later Taiwan's world champion Kuo Hsing-chun dismantled the Thai Olympic champion Srisurat Sukanya to win her country's first gold in the women's 58kg.
South Korea's Kim Woo-jae had looked as if he had turned the tables on Choe, his rival from across the heavily armed Korean border, when he succeeded with 187kg to give him a massive 347kg total.
Choe was floundering on 340kg, but the 25-year-old student smashed his lifetime best, set in coming eighth at the 2016 Rio Olympics, by 3kg as he somehow hauled 193kg above his head for victory.
In the women's 58kg, Taiwanese national icon Kuo only needed her opening lift of 125kg in the clean and jerk to blow away Srisurat and clinch gold.
She returned but failed by a whisker with a 143kg attempt that would have extended her own clean and jerk world record.
Earlier Thailand's Chinnawong Chatuphum became the only Thai man to win two Asian Games medals after repeating his bronze performance of 2014.
Woo's silver was South Korea's first medal in weightlifting of the 2018 Asiad and their 75th in the history of the Asian Games. Only China (76) and Iran (79) have won more.
It was also only the second North-South one-two in Asian Games weightlifting history after Yang Eui Yong beat Lee Myung-Soo in the men's 56kg event in 1978.
CHINA REACHES GOLDEN HALF-CENTURY MEDALS MARK
China scooped its 50th gold medal Thursday as it asserted its Asian Games dominance with multiple victories in wushu and rowing, where a Unified Korea team finished last.
All six wushu finals in a packed morning session in Jakarta included martial artists from China. Four claimed gold in the sport made famous by Jet Li and Jackie Chan, derived from an ancient Chinese warrior code.
On the rowing lake in co-host city Palembang, China were victorious in six of the eight morning medal races.
But the Olympic heavyweights were pipped by Uzbekistan in the men's double sculls, while Vietnam took its first Games gold in the lightweight women's quadruple sculls.
A joint rowing team consisting of athletes from North and South Korea came in last in the lightweight men's four, finishing more than half-a-minute off the pace.
VIETNAMESE WOMEN ROW TO FIRST ASIAN GAMES GOLD
An overjoyed Vietnamese women's rowing team paddled into first place Thursday to take their country's only gold of the Asian Games so far, as China racked up six wins on the Palembang lake.
Vietnam's lightweight women's quadruple sculls claimed gold in the final race of the penultimate day of rowing events, held in the co-host city of Asia's regional Olympics.
Iran took the silver in the same event -- its best-ever result in women's rowing -- but one of the team, Nazanin Rahmani, could barely stand to receive her medal after coming down sick after the race and was carted off on a stretcher shortly after the ceremony. China rowed to victory in six out of eight medal races on Thursday.
The Asian Games giant won the men's and women's single sculls and pair races, the women's double sculls and the lightweight men's four. Uzbekistan came away with three medals, including a gold in the men's double sculls. – AFP
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