Asian Games: Asian Games: China keeps its golden streak

Liu Hong of China (L) celebrates her win with bronze medalist Li Yanfei of China (R) after finishing the women's 20km walk in the athletics competition at the 16th Asian Games in Guangzhou

Guangzhou: Day 11 of the Asian Games saw China's Liu Hong successfully defended her women's 20-kilometre race walking title.

Liu, who took bronze at the 2009 Berlin worlds a year after finishing fourth at the Beijing Olympics, clocked a season's best of 1hr 30min 06sec with Japan's Masumi Fuchise some 30 seconds behind in 2nd place.

We were well prepared," said Liu, who with her Chinese teammates have been training under the watchful eye of legendary Italian coach Sandro Damilano in northern Italy.

"We can predict all the conditions that might happen in the competition so I'm not surprised to get two red cards," she said of the warnings she received for failing to keep minimum contact with the track.

"It's quite normal in race walking competition. We have a full plan and I was confident."

Taiwan's Hsiao Mei-yu won the women's individual road race on Tuesday, with Indonesia's Santia Tri Kusuma coming second for the silver and China's Zhao Na third.

Hsiao finished the 100 kilometres (60 miles) in two hours 47 minutes 46.12 seconds, with Kusuma coming home in 2hr 47min 46.52 and Zhao 2hr 47min 46.63.

Over in cricket, Bangladesh's international-studded team cruised to victory over Malaysia by 70 runs on Tuesday and joined Pakistan in the semi-finals of the Asian Games cricket tournament.

Test-playing Bangladesh scored a competitive 150-7 in 20 overs and Malaysia never looked like reaching their target against some disciplined bowling and tight fielding, struggling to 80 all out.

Bangladesh, including a clutch of players who have played Tests and one-day internationals, made a brisk start to their innings but slumped from 80-2 to 82-5 before staging a recovery.

Later Tuesday, seven more gold medals are up for grabs namely in the Men's High Jump, 1,500 metres final, the women's Long Jump and Discus Throw.

Wednesday will see the basketball knock-out round match-ups between defending champions China and Doha 2006 runner-up Qatar, while Japan faces North Korea, Iran tips off with Jordan and South Korea meets the Philippines.

As for team Singapore, the women's team after being hammered 27-5 by Thailand, in the Rugby quarterfinals go on to play for a placement within 5th to 8th.

In waterpolo, Singapore face Japan in the quarterfinals.

As for Soccer, it will see the first Men's football semi-final between Iran and Japan, followed by South Korea vs the United Arab Emirates in the other semis clash.

As for beach volleyball, Malaysia takes on Thailand for the women's bronze medal playoff, while it's an all-Chinese affair for the Gold medal.

-AFP/CNA/jl