Guangzhou, Nov. 27: An “extraordinary” Asian Games ended on Saturday after 15 days of thrills and spills that saw China reinforce its sporting credentials and Japan slip further behind.
On the last day of action at an Asiad unprecedented in size and scale, China fittingly won the last gold at stake when their women’s volleyball team toppled South Korea 3-2 in a thrilling finale.
Zhou Chunxiu added yet more gold to their haul by defending her women’s marathon title with teammate Zhu Xiaolin taking silver and North Korea’s Kim Kum-Ok the bronze. South Korea’s Ji Youngjun won the men’s race.
The volleyball success pushed the host nation's final gold tally to 199 and its total medals to a whopping 416 — both Asian Games records. Arch-rival Japan performed worse than expected, winning just 48 titles for an overall 216 total medals.