General: Israel may return to the Asian Games at 2002 Pusan Asiad
A Games press release yesterday said that a special invitation is being considered for Israel, which was excluded before the 1978 Games under pressure from participating middle eastern nations, to participate in the 2000 Pusan Asiad. In Israel's last Games appearance, at Tehran in 1974, it won seven gold medals and finished sixth in the medals race.

Also banned from the games is Iraq, an action that followed its invasion of Kuwait prior to the 1990 Gulf War. Iraq is unlikely to be invited for the Games. The father of the present President of Olympic Council of Asia was killed during the invasion.

General: Kuwait weightlifter Jaber al-Ajmi caught in doping test
Kuwait's Jaber al-Ajmi became the second athlete and second weightlifter to test positive for banned drugs at the Asian Games, officials said yesterday. Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) issued a statement yesterday stating that he has been disqualified after testing positive for nandrolone, a banned anabolic steroid. Sheikh Ahmad Al-Sabah, the president of OCA, who himself is a Kuwaiti, said, "I hope we don't have any more in future. I am very happy that there have been only two cases, not important cases, not involving champions."

The first case is Jordanian weightlifter Ayed Khawaldeh who tested positive for the banned substance triamterene. Both these athletes now face sanctions from the International Weightlifting Federation.

General: Records galore for the records
This Asiad has already seen eleven world and 48 Asian records broken so far. Weighlifting accounts for all the new world marks, with China breaking 10 and South Korean one.

There are also more countries on the medal charts than in the last Asian Games. Of the 41 participating countries, 32 have been able to win medals, as compared to only 22 in the last Asiad. Yeman, Bhutan and Maldives remain the three participants who have yet to win a medal in any Games.

Athletics: Three break 200m women record, Ito bags his third gold
The women's 200m final was a sizzler with all the three medallists coming under the Games mark. Damayanthi, who on Thursday rewrote the Games mark with a time of 23.16 secs in the semifinal and claimed that she had not trained for the 200m since 1995, ran a superb race yesterday clocking in 22.48 secs, clipping an incredible 0.68 seconds off her record. Double gold medallist China's Li Xuemei, hoping for her third gold win yesterday, finished second in 22.53 sec, while China's Yan Jiankui, another gold medalist, timed 23.15 sec for third placing.

Japan's Koji Ito, who claimed gold in the 100m (setting a Games record in the semi-final) and the 4x100m relay final, bagged his third gold yesterday in the 200m finals in 20.25 secs breaking the record of 20.41 secs set by Qatar's Talal Mansoor at Hiroshima. China's Han Chaoming, silver medallist in the Asian Athletics Championship in Fukoka, clocked in 20.70 secs for the silver, while Sri Lankan Robosingh Tillekeratne, who took the men's 400m gold on the second day, had to content with the third place in 20.83 secs.

See Athletics Results.

Athletics: Sutono wins Indonesia's first gold in 5000m, out on stretcher
Indonesia won its first athletics gold when Supriati Sutono claimed the women's 5,000m. Sutono surged ahead of India's Sunita Rani, who appeared a certain winner, in the last 10m and hit the tape first in 15:54.45. Sutono collapsed after crossing the line and was taken away on a stretcher.

India's teenage sensation was timed at 15:54.47. Japan's second string Michiko Shimizu took the bronze, leaving behind China's Wang Chunmei and Japan's Megumi Tanaka, who were expected to battle it out for gold and silver.

See Athletics Results.

Basketball: China dash Filipino Centennial dream
Philippines dream team Centennials received their second ego-bust when China delivered a 82-73 defeat in the semi-finals yesterday. The first blow came when South Korea beat Philippines 103-83 in the preliminaries.

The defeat is very saddening for the Filipinos, whose favorite sports is basketball. The Cenennial cages arrived in Bangkok riding the crest of media hype back home as being the best prepared and the most talented assembly of star pro players with the strongest prospect for a gold. Millions of Filipinos back home watched the match on TV. Filipino President Estrada was expected to arrive for the match late afternoon yesterday from Vietnam where he attended the ASEAN summit meeting.

China will play South Korea in the finals today, while Philippines will face Kazakhstan for the bronze. Philippines beat the Kazakhs in the preliminaries 53-52. A victory by the Filipinos will duplicate their Seoul Games finish in 1986.

Basketball: Japanese women cagers in upset win over China
Japan women cagers beat the favourites China 93-69 to take the gold and the women's title for the first time since the 1974 Teheran Games.

Japan's Mutsuku Nagata stole the show as Japan crushed the Chinese team, who are without their US-based exiles. Nagata topscored with 23 points and Japan broke open a close contest when the forward made a crucial steal midway through the final period which Chisako Hamada converted into two fast break points.

South Korea, the defending champions who were eliminated by China in Wednesday's semifinals, beat Taiwan 92-76 in the bronze medal playoff.

The Philippines team, coached by a former national Filipino cager Cristobal, were pulverized in the Asiad. China white-washed the Philippines, 116-40, while Japan delivered a merciles 119-41 defeat. Finally, Kazakhstan sank the Filipinas, 78-40.

Beach Volleyball: Thailand defeats China, Japan beats Indonesia for women's final
Thai spikers Manatsanan Paengkha and Rattanaporn Arlaisuk set up a women's beach volleyball showdown with Japan's Yukiko Takahashi and Mika Saiki after demolishing China 15-10 in the semifinal yesterday. The Thai spikers came off from behind 4-7 to equalise at 7-7. After China moved up to 10-7, the Thai spikers again rebounded to equalise and move on further to win the game at 15-10.

In the other semi-final yesterday, the Japanese pair of Takahashi and Saiki, crushed compatriots Ryoko Tokuno and Chiaki Kusuhara 15-2 in the other semifinal. This sets the finals between Thailand and Japan, scheduled for today.

Beach Volleyball: Chinese-Indon Men finals, Thai-Indon bronze fight
China's duo of Gu Hongyu and Li Hua edged the top Thai men's duo of Thaveep Thongkhamnerd and Sathaporn Sawangruang 16-14 yesterday in the semi-finals. China moves forward to the finals scheduled today, against the Indonesians duo of Irikhun Shofanna and Agus Salim.

In the third placing playoffs today, the Thai men's duo will take on arch rivals Anjas Asmara and Iwan Sumoyo of Indonesia. Thaveep and Sathaporn are favourites to beat their Indonesian rivals. The Thais beat the Indonesians in all three meetings in this year's third Sealect Tuna Beach Volleyball Invitation, which took place in Yasothorn, Ubon Ratchathani and Nan.

Billiards: India sails into semi-finals for second gold
Favourite India's Geet Sethi, World Professional Billiards Champion, put up a great performance to defeat Taiwan's Hung Chung-Ming 3-0 at yesterday's singles billiards semi-finals. Sethi's compatriot Ashok Shandilya had initial hiccups but managed to overcome Sri Lanka's Sirisome Kohobala also in a 3-0 frame victory.

Sethi paired with Shandilya to deliver India's first billiards gold on Thursday night. Sethi is set to meet Reynaldo Grandee of the Philippines, while Shandilya, runs into Thai opponent C Praput, who almost snatched away the gold from India in the doubles final.

Boxing: Somluck and Pramuansak win to make Thai kings of ring
Millionaire boxer Somluck Khamsing and Pramuansak Phosuwan boxed in two more gold medals yesterday for Thailand, making it five out of five the Thais contested for in the boxing finals. Leaders Uzbekistan (who fielded 8 finalists) had to contend with two golds, both of which they won yesterday, while Kazakhstan snapped the other two at stake.

Somluck, the Atlanta Olympic gold medallist, arrived to a tumultous roar at his featherweight clash with arch-rival Uzbek Tulkunbav Turgunov, the roar peaking with each punch he threw. Tulgunov kept up the pace in the first three rounds, with Somluck exploiting Tulgunov's open defences in the fourth. Tulganov managed to land a right late in the fourth, but not enough for the points decision. Filipino Eric Canoy, who had earlier vowed to defeat Somluck, lost in the semi-finals, bagged the bronze.

Pramuansak Phosuwan gained revenge on Indonesia's Hermensen Ballo, who beat him in the lightweight final of the Southeast Asian Games in Jakarta last year. Ballo rushed at the Thai champion, who used neat footwork to keep out of the way of the Indonesian's lunging punches and landed enough of his own in the final round for another Thai victory.

See other boxing results.

Football: Kuwait-Iran Finals battle with wounded players
Both Iran and Kuwait's coaches are awaiting the results of last minute fitness tests before naming the line-up for today's finals at the Rajamangala Stadium. Iran have injury doubts over defender Mohammad Khakpour and midfielder Mehdi Mahdavikia while Kuwait may be missing striker Jassem Al Houwaidi.

Al Houwaidi did not take part in the 3-0 semi-final win over Thailand due to a thigh strain. Al-Houwaidi is second top scorer at the Asian Games with eight goals and was Asia's Player of the Month in November after hitting nine goals at the Gulf Cup. Iran will give Khakpour a late fitness test after the 29-year-old World Cup defender suffered a knee injury in the 4-0 win over Uzbekistan on Monday. Khakpour missed Iran's 1-0 win over China in the semi. Mahdavikia has been carrying on with a left anke injury

Kuwait are aiming for their first ever gold medal in the Asian Games football tournament while Iran will be going for the second gold in the last three Asian Games competitions. The Iranians claimed gold in 1990 in Beijing when they defeated North Korea 4-1 in a penalty shoot-out.

Football: Thailand China showdown at Hat Yai today
The battle for the football bronze appears to receive more attention than the match between Kuwait and Iran for the first/second placing today in Bangkok.

Thailand faces China for third/fourth placing today at Hat Yai. Local media is full of praise for Thailand's "miracle team" which defeated defending champions South Korea. All tickets to the 20,000 seat capacity stadium were sold out within hours three days ago. Thailands' team adviser Peter Withe expects a water-logged playing field given the sustained spell of rain at the venue -- and will change tactics with midfield control and are practising striking techniques.

Chinese coach, Bobby Houghton, was not unduly worried about playing against Thailand. China defeated the hosts six times in eight meetings, drawing one and losing just once. In their the last match, on June 27 for the opening of the Rajamangala National Stadium, the Chinese won 3-0. The thing that concerns Houghton most, however, is the cheering hordes of Thai fans, which could put his team under a lot of pressure.

Hockey: South Korea downs India 2-1 in women finals
South Korea defeated a spirted Indian team 2-1 yesterday to win its fourth successive Asian Games title. India had won the gold in the 1982 New Delhi Asian Games where women's hockey made its debut and took the bronze in the 1986 Seoul Asiad. India did not go to Beijing in 1990 and were fourth at Hiroshima four years ago.

India, which had an impressive showing in the round-robin stage, in which they lost only to South Korea 5-0, came spirited for the rematch at the finals yesterday, winning the first goal through skipper Pritam Rani Thakran in the 27th minute. South Korea drew level at the opening of the second-half through Kim Tae Seon conversion of Korea's fifth penalty corner, and went on for the winning goal through SeungSshin midway in the second-half.

In an earlier match, China bagged the bronze defeating Japan 2-0. Both goals came in the first half, scored by Fu Baorong converting a penatly corner and a field goal by Yang Huiping.

Rowing: China's Ma features in rowing wins
China's head rowing coach Gao Hongyin revealed yesterday that China's controversial athletics supercoach Ma Junren secretly helped the Chinese rowers who have already won five out of five gold medals at the Asian Games.

Goa, who is confident his squad will all 11 golds at stake in the sports, said that China suffered a severe defeat at the world championships in Germany earlier this year but the training camp in Guangdong, where Ma Junren came to lecture, proved very helpful.

Ma became an international star after the 1993 world athletics championships when his runners -- fuelled by a daily concoction including fresh turtle's blood -- emerged from nowhere to monopolise the middle and long distance titles. Ma is in official disgrace with the Chinese sports authorities for refusing to enter his world record holding runners for the Asian Games qualifying races. The absence of Ma's army of athletes, now led by 5,000m world record holder Jiang Bo, has been one of the major disappointments of the Asian Games.

Rugby: South Korea defeats favorites Japan for two wins
Watched by a 1,500 crowd at the Royal Thai Army Stadium, South Korea delivered a shock 21-17 upset defeat of favourites Japan in a breathtaking 15-a-side final yesterday. In the play-off for third place, Chinese Taipei beat Sri Lanka 38-20.

In the 15-a-side semifinals on Wednesday, Japan brushed aside Sri Lanka 116-0, while South Korea cruised past Chinese Taipei 69-5. The Japanese, who lost to South Korea in the 7-a-side in an earlier finals and had claimed that the 15s is their favorite event, went on to the attack early in the game and had the Korean defence in all sorts of trouble.

The first half saw one try each with conversion, and a late penalty for a 10-7 in favor of Japan. In the second half, Japan's Tsutomu Matsada made a try with a 40m run and the conversion put Japan leading to 17-7. Korean Cheng Chi-ho and Huang with two tries and conversion turned the table to silence the favorites for a Korean win at 21-17.

Sepak Takraw: Thais circling for gold
Thailand's circle takraw men team exhibited superb control of the ball to score more than 5,000 points, while the women finished scoring more than 3,000 points, to lead the second round competitions at the Indoor Stadium, Hua Mark yesterday.

The women's circle team were in perfect control as they notched up 1,147 points and topped the preliminary round where they had to play only a 10-minute set. In the second round, they scored an impressive 3,721 points.

The men's team upset the fans when they failed to control Burma, who registered the highest score of 1,550 points in the preliminary round in the morning. In the second round, the men team kept the rhythm going in the three sets of 10 minutes each to record the highest score of 5,058 points.

The final round will feature Thailand (men and women), Burma (men and women), Indonesia (men and women), Malaysia (men) and Vietnam (women).

See detailed second round results.

Tennis: Yoon Yong-il snatches men tennis title
South Korea's Yoon Yong-il rallied magnificently from a set down to beat Japan's Satoshi Iwabuchi and take the men's tennis singles gold medal at the Muang Thong Thani Tennis Centre yesterday. This is Yoon's second gold victory in a week at the Asiad. Last week, Yoon steered South Korea to the team gold.

Yoon, who lost the Hiroshima final to China's Pan Bing, served and volleyed brilliantly and took advantage of his sixth-seeded rival's poor serves to win 5-7, 6-4, 6-3, 6-2. Yoon set up 14 break points and converted six, while Iwabuchi managed only three of 10. Men's singles bronze medals went to Indians Srinath Prahlad and Mahesh Bhupathi, the semifinal losers.

The South Korean women duo of Park Sung-hee and Cho Yoon-jeong however lost the women's doubles final to Li Fang and Li Chen of China 6-2, 7-6 (7-2). The victory was sweet for Fang and Chen, who lost in the final at Hiroshima. Japan's Rika Hiraki and Nana Miyagi and China's Yi Jing-qian and Li Li received the women's doubles bronzes.

The two medal win met the two medal target set by Korea Tennis Association president Kim Dooh-wan, who said, "We had to wait for 12 long years for this occasion."

Wrestling: Iran emerges champion wrestlers
RAN'S wrestlers won three Asian Games gold medals and a bronze in four freestyle categories, making Iran the champion wrestlers in Asia. Iran's coach Amir Reza Khadem said the three gold wins came as no suprise to him, "We are among the world's best wrestlers. Iranians know how to wrestle since after they were born. We will have a big celebration at home.

Ali-Reza Rezaei won the freestyle 130kg division, Alibeza Heidari the 85kg and Amir Tavaclian the 69kg. Mohammad Talaei won the bronze for 58kg. North Korea's Ri Yong-sam grabbed the gold medal in the 58kg division. The silver went to Mongolia's Oyunbeleg Purevbaatar. Uzbekistan's Georgiy Kaysinov in the 130-kilogram category and Rasul Katinovasov at 85kg were awarded silvers. The bronzes were won respectively by G Usukhbajar of Mongolia and Magomed Kurugliyev of Kazakstan. Syria's Ahmad al-Osta won the silver for the 69kg, and Japan's Ryusaburo Katsu the bronze.