China grab five golds in track cycling at Asian Games

GUANGZHOU - Guo Shuang and Zhang Lei both grabbed gold medals, winning women and men’s sprint races Wednesday to help China wrap up the track cycling events with five gold medals from 10 events at the 16th Asian Games.

South Korea bagged two gold medals on men’s individual pursuit and team pursuit, Hong Kong, Uzbekistan and Malaysia each grabbed one in women’s individual pursuit, men’s point race and men’s keirin respectively.

Four Asian records were broken on the track at the Games, Xinhua reported.

Hong Kong’s Lee Wai Sze, 23, first set record in women’s individual time trial, beating Beijing Olympic bronze medalist Guo Shuang of China.

“I always want to beat her,” said Lee, “And now my dream has come true.”

Guo Shuang had to settle for the silver. But on the final day of track cycling events, she seized a gold in women’s sprint.

South Korea’s Jang Sun Jae rewrote the Asian record in men’s individual pursuit in qualifying with a flying four minutes 26.089 seconds.

Jang, 26, said he had to work hard on cycling as his father, who used to be a cyclist and was the gold medallist in the men’s team time trial at the 1982 Asian Games, expected much from him.

“He expects much from me so I had to prepare very hard for the Games,” said Jang.

Jang, along with teammates Hwang Inhyeok, Cho Ho Sung and Park Seon Ho, also broke the Asian record in men’s team pursuit.

“We know we will have good results,” said Jang. “We prepared well for the Games.”

China’s Jiang Fan, 20, notched the Asian record in women’s individual pursuit in three minutes 37.105 seconds.

“Although I broke the Asian record, I am still far from being the world No. 1. As the event would be taken off in the future, I am happy to break the Asian record before that happened,” Jiang said.

Next on the Asian Games cycling event will be mountain bike cross-country, BMX and road cycling. All cycling events will be concluded Nov. 23.