As expected, China dominates the Asian Games

GUANGZHOU, China — Let there be no doubt. China knows how to stage a sports event. The Chinese dazzled the world with the Olympics in Beijing and now they've done it again in the southern city of Guangzhou, hosting — and totally dominating — the biggest Asian Games ever held. The next time as many athletes gather, it will be 2012 at the London Olympics. Judging from China's outstanding performance here at the Asian version, a once-every-four-years extravaganza featuring more than 10,000 competitors, its red-and-yellow-clad athletes could take their show to the British capital in a very big way. Guangzhou, China's third-largest city, has for the past two weeks played host to more than 10,000 athletes from 45 countries and regions. That was hundreds more than the previous games, held in Doha, Qatar. Another 4,750 team officials descended on the city, organizers said, along with some 60,000 volunteers. China — in its quest to set a gold medal-winning record — sent a delegation of 1,500 people, including almost 1,000 athletes. And they snapped up the medals like never before. China demolished the competition with its 199 golds, including a nail-biter in women's volleyball to claim the final gold awarded as the games closed Saturday. South Korea was second with 76 and Japan had to settle for 48. The Chinese team was so dominant — sweeping diving, table tennis, basketball, beach volleyball, women's boxing and a 10-gold romp in the non-Olympic dance sport event — that it found itself facing criticism the other countries might as well have not shown up. "Every delegation participated at these games to obtain the best possible result," delegation secretary-general Cai Jiadong said. "Even though we were top of the medal tally, it doesn't mean we have a monopoly." Not quite, anyway. There were a few special moments for other nations. Along with the usual complement of familiar Olympic sports, the Asian Games have a healthy heaping of local flavor, from the acrobatic game of sepak takraw, a no-hands brand of volleyball that is popular in southeast Asia, to the Indian tag game of kabaddi and China's own fast and furious martial art of wushu. "The staging of the 14 non-Olympic sports are equally fascinating and has furthered the development of the Asian-unique sports," said Xu Ruisheng, the deputy secretary-general of the organizing committee. Countries from Myanmar to Syria to Kazakhstan — 36 in all — took home medals. One thing the games were short on, however, was world records. Only three were set — two in weightlifting and one in archery. That was fewer than in Doha, and prompted some criticism that the level of the competition was not as good as it should have been, considering the participating countries represent two-thirds of the world's population. Still, the head of the Olympic Council of Asia noted that, taking into account the sheer size of the event, there were surprisingly few controversies. OCA chief Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah boasted that even a military conflict on the Korean Peninsula couldn't damage the event's image. Four South Koreans were killed last Tuesday when North Korean artillery destroyed large parts of Yeonpyeong Island in an escalation of their sporadic skirmishes along the disputed sea border. The two Koreas continued to compete as planned. North and South Korean athletes even stood next to each other on the podium later that day in archery, and again in wrestling the next day. The games also only had two reported cases of doping — compared with more than a dozen in Doha — and even those weren't too shocking. The two positives — a judo competitor and a wrestler, both from Uzbekistan — involved a banned stimulant that the World Anti-Doping Agency has decided to downlist next year to a classification of drugs that are susceptible to inadvertent use and can carry reduced penalties. Al-Sabah said the most controversial decision at the games came when Taiwanese taekwondo competitor Yang Shu-chun was disqualified during her match against Vietnam's Thi Hau Vu. Judges ruled she was using illegal sensors on the heels of her shoes that would have unfairly added points to her score. There was much outcry in Taipei over the decision and the OCA has handed responsibility over to the World Taekwondo Federation for further investigation. But Al-Sabah said the competitor had used "unfair technology ... it was a very fair suspension." He also noted China's domination, from the massive spending on venues and games preparations, to the medal table. He said it was important to keep raising the bar on and off the fields of play to keep the continent competitive in broader international competition. "China is not only on top of the medal table in Asian Games, but also in the Olympics," Al-Sabah told The Associated Press. "If Asia's athletes have to compete against the best in the world here, it will increase their level of competition." Guangzhou will likely remain on the books as the biggest ever for quite some time — the OCA has decided that the games have become too unwieldy for their own good and will be streamlined for the next version in Incheon, South Korea in 2014. Seven non-Olympic sports are set to be cut from the 2014 program, reducing the total to 35 sports. Some of the events rumored to be on their way out are tenpin bowling, dance, roller sports and chess.—AP