JAKARTA: Two 14-year-old divers from China became the youngest gold medallists at the 2018 Asian Games when they romped to victory in the women’s synchronised 10 metre platform yesterday.
Zhang Jiaqi and Zhang Minjie - fresh from a win at the Wuhan World Cup event in June - tumbled into a commanding lead from their exquisite opening dive and never looked threatened, securing the top spot with 361.38.
Victory was the icing on the cake for Zhang Minjie, who was celebrating her 14th birthday yesterday.
Behind the terrific teens came North Korean duo Kim Kuk Hyang and Kim Mi Rae - who placed fourth in the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio - on 337.86.
Malaysian pair Leong Mun Yee and Nur Dhabitah Sabri bagged the bronze with 310.80.
Zhang Jiaqi, ranked five in the world, and world number nine Zhang Minjie showed no hint of nerves as they rolled out a spectacular back two-and-a-half somersaults and one-and-a-half twists in the fifth and final round to clinch the gold.
China also won four gold gold medals in athletics.
Xie Wenjun defended his 110m hurdles title with a season’s best 13.34 seconds, finishing ahead of Chen Kueiru of Taiwan and Japanese Shunya Takayama.
Women’s Asian record holder javelin thrower Lyu Huihui, who set the mark with 67.59m at the 2017 world championships in London, came to Jakarta as a favourite to win gold but she was pushed to silver by compatriot Liu Shiying.
It took Liu to post a Games record mark of 66.09 to claim the gold with Lyu managing 63.16.
Li Ling defended her pole vault title and she did it in style with a new Asian Games record of 4.40 metres.
There were more cheers on the night for the Chinese contingent as Wang Chunyu won the women’s 800m, her gold bringing up the 200th medal for the Asian giants.
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