The first gold medal of the 20th Asian Games was won on Sunday by host nation Japan as a 13-year-old swimmer from China started in blistering form on the opening day of the multisports extravaganza.
Japan’s Takumi Hojo won the men’s individual triathlon in Gamagori city near Nagoya with China’s Zhang Xirui second and Kazakhstan’s Arlan Zhanabay taking bronze.
It was the first of 469 gold medals to be awarded at a two-week spectacle that has more athletes than the Olympics.
Action also began in the swimming pool, where Yu Zidi, who does not turn 14 until next month, was fastest by far in the women’s 200m butterfly heats.
Teenager Yu touched almost 2.70 seconds ahead of compatriot Chang Mohan and will be a hot favourite to take her first major gold in Sunday evening’s final.
China’s men’s 100m freestyle world record holder and Olympic champion Pan Zhanle also went through fastest to the final in 48.07sec, but was only 0.06sec quicker than South Korea’s Hwang Sun-woo.
However Pan fired a warning to his rivals for gold: “I think tonight I will be better.”
The Games were officially declared open on Saturday by Japan’s Emperor Naruhito but there were a large number of empty seats at the 30,000-capacity stadium in Nagoya.
It sounded the starting pistol on two weeks of intense action as the continent’s finest athletes compete in more than 40 sports before the curtain comes down on October 4.
