Host nation China enjoyed another successful canoe sprint day on the water at the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou, scooping up five of the six gold medals on offer to finish the competition with three quarters of the gold medals decided.
Tokyo Olympian and world championship medalist Wenjun Lin was the star of the day for China, picking up two gold medals.
Lin set the tone for the day when she took gold for China in the women’s C1 200, the event where she won bronze at the Duisburg world championships. Lin, who finished sixth in the same race at the Tokyo Olympics, finished 1.598 seconds clear of Thailand’s Orasa Thiangkathok, with 18-year-old Mariya Brovkova of Kazakhstan finishing third.
Lin later partnered Changwen Shuai to gold in the final event on the canoe sprint program, the women’s C2 200. Lin and Shuai were more than two seconds clear of crews from Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan in the frantic 200 metre race.
Dongyin Li continued the gold rush for China when she took victory in the women’s K1 500, with Singapore’s Stephenie Chen 1.143 seconds back in the silver medal position, and Iran’s Hediye Kazemi third.
China also wrapped up gold in both the men’s and women’s K4 500 events. In the men’s, the Chinese crew finished 1.147 seconds ahead of Korea, with Japan taking the bronze, while in the women’s race China finished almost three seconds clear of Korea, with Uzbekistan picking up third position.
China’s sole defeat came in the men’s C2 1000, where Uzbekistan’s Shokmurod Kholmuradov and Nurislom Tukhtasin Ugli finished more than six seconds ahead of Kazakhstan, with India picking up its first medal of the canoe sprint competition by finishing third.
China finished the canoe sprint competition with nine of the 12 gold medals on offer. The remaining golds were shared by Taipei, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
