CHANGCHUN, Northeast China, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- Hosts
China beat reigning champions Japan to the top of the final medal tally in a
clean sixth Asian Winter Games without any positive doping cases so far after
all competitions concluded here on Saturday.
"The doping control here is done in
accordance with OCA rule and in consistence of WADA and IOC's anti-doping
regulations. We are happy to say that all the results returned to us are
negative," said Dr. Jegathesan Manikavasagam, an OCA medical official.
"We plan to do about 200 tests both out of
competition and during the Games. By far, we have conducted 156," he said,
adding all the samples would be sent to the doping-control lab in Beijing
authorized by the World Anti-Doping Agency.
Of the day's first three gold medals at stake in
Jilin, the venue for all snow sports, Kazakhstan completed their perfect run on
Saturday as they won the women's 4X5km and the men's 4X10km relays, the last two
gold medals on offer in the cross-country skiing.
The Kazakhs also won both the women's 5km classical
and the men's 30km freestyles on Wednesday to reap four out of the six, with the
other two titles gone to Chinese veteran Wang Chunli in the women's sprint free
and Japanese Yuichi Onda in the men's sprint free.
"In Asia, China and Japan are our main opponents, but
I believe Kazakhstan are the favorites to win the trophy in the competitions on
Asian level," said Shelgay Tishkov, coach of the Kazakhstan cross country team.
"Kazakhstan have been in the skiing World Cup circuit
for about six years, we started the World Cup only last year, it is a big
success for us to become the number two after beating Japan," said Per-Eric
Ronnestrand, coach of the Chinese team.
"The Chinese are moving forward step by step, and we
will beat Kazakhstan four years later in their country," he added. The 7th Asian
Winter Games will be held in Almaty, Kazakhstan in 2011.
In the Apline skiing, Japan easily defended their top
position by sweeping all four gold medals after Yasuhiro Ikuta collected his
second personal title, winning the men's slalom on Saturday in one minute and
47.92 seconds, 0.62 seconds ahead of silver medallist Kang Min-Heuk of South
Korea.
"We are strong in Alpine skiing in Asia, and I am
contented with the results we achieved here," said Kitamura Takeshi, manager of
the Japanese Alpine skiing team, "but we have a long way to go to catch up with
the top of the world."
Ikuta's teammate Masashi Hanada finished third in
1:48.85.
In the ice hockey tournament of the Games, Japan came
from behind to beat China 3-1 on Saturday for a clean sheet in all five matches
to defend their men's title while Kazakhstan also had their revenge, beating
Japan 2-1 in their final match to keep the women's gold.
"I told my players our target was nothing but to win
the gold medal before we came here," said Toshiyuki Sakai, coach of the Japanese
men's team, "I was really satisfied with our performance in the match against
Kazakhstan. That was the key victory (3-2 on Thursday)."
Kazakhstan won over South Korea 8-1 to lock the men's
silver medal, followed by South Korea and China.
In the women's round-robin tournament, Japan missed
the chance to triumph in the Winter Asiad for the first time after losing to
Kazakhstan 2-1 on Saturday.
"It was a pity that we produced several chances in
the third period but failed to score," said Kohichi Satoh, head coach of Japan's
women team.
Kazakhs, the reigning champions and the second-ranked
in Asia took an early lead by two goals in the first period and resisted fierce
attacks from Japan in the third period to secure the title.
"The Japanese are stronger than we met last time,"
said Sergey Solovyev, head coach of Kazakhstan, referring to the clash last
October when the Kazakhs suffered a loss. "I would say that we won by luck
today."
Top-ranked women's Asian team of China beat DPR Korea
6-3 for the bronze medal.
In the last three finals of the Games, China reaped
two golds from the figure skating in the men's single and pairs, with the other
gone to Japan in the ice dancing.
Japanese veterans Nozomi Watanabe, 36 and Akiyuki
Kido, 32, beat three Chinese combinations for a winning total of 151.93 points
in the ice dancing after their runner-up finish in the last Games in Aomori,
Japan, 2003.
Winter Asiad debutants Huang Xintong and Zheng Xun,
all at their 20s, finished second in 150.06, ahead of fellow Chinese Yu Xiaoyang
and Wang Chen who settled for the bronze in 138.36.
Earlier, World University Games bronze medalist Xu
Ming, 25, awarded China the men's singles crown by leading both short program
and free skate for a total of 194.19 points.
Compatriot Li Chengjiang retained his silver medal
with 184.20,and Kensuke Nakaniwa of Japan took the bronze in 179.13.
Former world champions and Olympic medalists Shen
Xue, 28 and Zhao Hongbo, 34 ensured a happy ending for the hosts by winning the
pairs title for the fourth time in their probably last Asian Winter Games.
The pair, who had two world titles in 2002 and 2003,
and two bronzes from the previous Olympics in Salt Lake City and Turin,
collected 126.06 points from the free skate, winning the title in a total of
195.55.
Last year's world champions Pang Qing and Tong Jian
finished second in 181.47, ahead of Li Jiaqi and Xu Jiankun, third in 144.20.
However, new regulations of the Games, which prevent
a clean sweep of medals for any team, also pushed Uzbekistan to the medal podium
for the first time with a shared bronze medal as Marina Aganina and Artyom
Knyazev scored the closest of 126.20 against the top three.
Of all the 47 gold medals on offer in the Games,
China had a huge collection of 19 golds, 19 silvers and 23 bronzes, Japan stood
in a distant second with a 13-9-14 sheet, South Korea ranked third (9-13-11),
ahead of Kazakhstan (6-6-6). Both Uzbekistan and Mongolia had one bronze medal
apiece by the merit of the new regulations.