Japan Teen Smashes Swim World Record As Yulo Grabs Gold

(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) Japanese 17-year-old Shin Ohashi smashed a swimming world record at his home Asian Games on Thursday, as several teams rounded on organisers over problems dogging the continent's biggest sporting spectacular.

Home hope Ohashi scorched to gold in the men's 200m breaststroke in 2min 04.83sec, less than two years out from the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

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The teenager with a fondness for junk food cut more than half a second off the previous mark, held by China's Qin Haiyang since July 2023.

Ohashi had already won the 100m breaststroke gold this week in Tokyo after a dead heat with China's Dong Zhihao.

"My target has always been to break the world record and I'm so happy to have done it," said Ohashi.

"My next goal is to win gold at next year's world championships and then go on to win gold at the Olympics," he added.

"I don't want to be satisfied and I want to feel these emotions again."

Previous world record holder Qin did not swim the 200m at this year's Asian Games.

Carlos Yulo, the Philippines' first Olympic gymnastics champion, added Asian Games gold to his trophy cabinet on Thursday in a triumph made in Japan.

The 4-foot-11 inch (1.5m) Yulo trained in Japan under a scholarship from the local Olympic committee and delivered in front of the Nagoya crowd with a technical and precise routine to claim the floor exercise gold.

With his brother Karl competing in the same final, Yulo scored 14.666, edging out Kazakh Milad Karimi (14.600) in a cliffhanger.

Shoma Tsukiyama took bronze for Japan with a score of 14.566. Only a tenth of a point split the medallists.

Yulo became the first Filipino to win multiple Olympic gold medals when he claimed the floor and vault titles at the Paris Games.

Having missed out on the 2018 Asian Games podium, his only previous appearance at the multi-sport event, the 26-year-old said he was glad to have a full set of world, Olympic and continental titles.

"Having this in my collection, it's all complete now," he told reporters.

"We can just relax and really hope for the best tomorrow."

Yulo will bid for a second Asian Games gold in the vault at the Nagoya City General Gymnasium on Friday.

China embellished their haul when Yang Yang finished ahead of North Korea's Pang Un Chol and Thailand's Silachai Theerapong in the men's 60kg class in weightlifting.

Yang raised 138kg in the snatch and 166kg in the clean and jerk for a total of 304kg, 3kg better than Pang (127kg/174kg/301kg).

The North Korean matched his own clean and jerk world record at 174kg, but could not manage the four extra kilogrammes that would have given him victory with his final attempt.

North Korea turned the tables in the men's 65kg event, Pak Myong Jin winning with a 182kg final lift of the competition and 328kg total to relegate China's world record holder He Yueji to silver by 1kg.

China swatted aside the hosts 3-0 to win women's team gold in badminton.

Japan's 11-year-old eSports whizz-kid Yuki Kurihara crushed the competition, beating opponents almost three times his age.

The bespectacled primary school student, who says he eats eel to prepare for contests, is the youngest athlete at the Games.

He competes in Puyo Puyo Champions, a puzzle game where players try to clear their screen of coloured blobs by lining them up and popping them.

Kurihara beat all four opponents he faced to top Group A and put him on track for gold.

The men's cricket began with hosts Japan losing to Afghanistan by 48 runs and Malaysia crushing Hong Kong by eight wickets in preliminary group matches.

Favourites India and fellow Asian heavyweight Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh are seeded directly into the quarter-finals next week.

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