HANGZHOU, China: India claimed the first world record of the Hangzhou Asian Games on Monday as hosts China snapped up more gold medals and a nine-year-old skateboarder melted hearts.
The Indian trio of Divyansh Panwar, Rudrankksh Patil and Aishwary Tomar blew away the field with a new world best 1,893.7 points to win the men's 10m air rifle team event on day two of the multi-sports extravaganza.
They beat the previous mark of 1,893.3 set by China last month and in doing so won India's first gold of a Games where the hosts have swept 32 of the 51 titles decided so far.
"In the 10m event they are both perfect athletes," Tomar said of his teammates. "Playing with them is huge, it's really good."
India claimed their second gold in the afternoon when they defeated Sri Lanka in the final of the women's cricket by 19 runs.
Another shooting world record fell to Chinese teenager Sheng Lihao in the men's 10m air rifle with his 253.3 points surpassing teammate Yu Haonan's 252.8 from Rio four years ago.
"I had good luck in the final. I did quite well today, I was basically smooth," said the 18-year-old, a Tokyo Olympic silver medallist.
In other action, Mazel Paris Alegado — aged just nine — said it was "so fun" competing in skateboarding.
Thought to be the youngest athlete in Hangzhou and representing the Philippines, she qualified for the "women's" park final and came seventh out of eight.
The competition was won by comparative veteran Hinano Kusaki from Japan, aged 15. China's Chen Ye, also just 15, won the men's park in skateboarding.
At the Fuyang Water Sports Centre, Zhang Liang became the most successful Asian Games rower of all time.
China's Zhang won the men's single sculls to add to his men's double sculls gold from Sunday and now has five Asian Games titles from four editions.
"I cannot say I am a leader. I do what I should do as a rower, to pursue my goals and dreams, to do well," he said.
QIN TARGETS GOLD
After winning all seven gold medals in the swimming pool on the opening day, China are primed to dominate again on Monday night, spearheaded by breaststroke world champion Qin Haiyang.
The Chinese star caused a major upset at the world championships in Fukuoka in July when he won the 100m gold in 57.69 ahead of a stacked field and in the absence of British great Adam Peaty.
He went on to complete an unprecedented clean sweep of the breaststroke titles, an achievement he is aiming to match at his home Asiad as he builds towards next year's Paris Olympics.
Qin was in a class of his own in the heats, touching in 58.35 to better the previous Games best set by Japan's Yasuhiro Koseki in 2018.
South Korea's Choi Dong-yeol came in second — a gaping 1.55 seconds behind Qin.
Hong Kong's Siobhan Haughey could prevent another Chinese clean sweep when she lines up in the women's 200m freestyle final.
After earning silver behind Australian star Ariarne Titmus at the Tokyo Olympics, she narrowly missed the medals at the July world championships. But she reinforced her credentials with a silver in Fukuoka over 100m.
Haughey qualified fifth-fastest in 2:00.75 in the 200m freestyle, conserving energy while capable of swimming a lot faster. China's Li Bingjie was quickest through the heats. — AFP
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