Korea earns golds at East Asian Games

HONG KONG - China and South Korea opened their East Asian Games campaigns on Saturday by each earning two gold medals, with the Chinese winning in snooker and cycling and the Koreans finding success in shooting and English billiards.

In an all-Chinese men’s snooker final, Tian Pengfei beat Yu Delu 4-2. Also, Ma Liyun crossed first in the women’s BMX cycling finals, finishing in 35.746 seconds. Ma finished just ahead of Ayaka Miwa of Japan and more than three seconds ahead of Jiang Nannan of China. South Korea’s reigning 50-meter pistol Olympic champion Jin Jong-oh scored 685.8 points in the 10-meter competition, narrowly beating teammate Lee Dae-myung by 0.4 points. Tomoyuki Matsuda of Japan took bronze with 683.2 points.

Hwang Chul-ho staved off Eric Lee of Hong Kong 3-1 in the men’s English billiards final.

China also advanced in table tennis, moving into the finals of both the men’s and women’s team competition. Led by Olympic silver medalist Wang Hao, the Chinese men defeated Hong Kong 3-0, setting up a showdown against Japan, which beat South Korea 3-0. The Chinese women swept Taiwan 3-0, earning a matchup against Hong Kong, which eliminated Japan 3-1.

Host Hong Kong also had an impressive first day, winning two golds. While it is ruled by China, the former British colony fields separate teams in international sports events.

In the men’s BMX final, Steven Wong won gold, crossing the line in 30.181 seconds, just ahead of Masahiro Sampei of Japan. Zhao Zhiyang of China was third, 1.646 seconds behind.

A Hong Kong squad led by Marco Fu beat Taiwan 3-1 in the men’s snooker team final. Hong Kong also guaranteed itself two squash golds by sweeping the men’s and women’s semifinals without dropping a set. Lau Siu-wai beat Lee Se-hyun of South Korea and Lee Ho-yin beat Shinnosuke Tsukue of Japan. AP