Hangzhou (Agencies)

Chinese prodigy Pan Zhanle became the first Asian swimmer to break the 47-second mark in the 100 metres freestyle at the Asian Games yesterday, while North Korea celebrated its return to major competition with a medal in judo.
Pan stormed to gold in the Hangzhou pool with a scintillating time of 46.97 seconds, the fifth fastest ever, announcing himself as a major contender in the blue riband event a year out from the Paris Olympics.
That came soon after China’s “Butterfly Queen” Zhang Yufei fired up the crowd with a dominant gold. The Olympic 200 metres butterfly champion won her pet event with ease, posting an Asian Games record time of two minutes, 05:57 seconds to finish well clear of runner-up compatriot Yu Liyan.
“I actually felt the pool was a little slow for me, and I told my coach that I wasn’t feeling in good form. I felt I could have gone even faster.”
Zhang’s time was nearly two seconds below her best but the gold continued a barnstorming start for the host nation, which has topped the medals table at the last 10 Asian Games.
After Saturday’s spectacular opening ceremony at the lotus-shaped Olympic stadium, China continued the shock and awe in the competitions as 31 gold medals went up for grabs in swimming, fencing, judo, shooting, and other sports.
China won six of seven rowing golds, including the first of the Games by local duo Zou Jiaqi and Qiu Xiuping who clinched the lightweight women’s doubles sculls title early in the morning.
The hosts also took multiple golds in shooting, modern pentathlon and the traditional Chinese martial art of Wushu.
The 24-year-old judoka Chae Kwangjin put North Korea back on the map on Sunday as he battled to a bronze play-off in the men’s 60-kg division, and then pulled off a double-leg take-down (morote-gari) of big Mongolian Ariunbold Enkhtaivan to secure the minor medal.

Sri Lanka and India in Women’s Cricket Final
In-form Sri Lanka, fresh from a stunning Twenty20 series victory in England, beat Pakistan by six wickets to reach the women’s cricket final at the Asian Games and set up a clash with India.
Pakistan never got going on a difficult batting surface affected by days of rain at the Zhejiang University of Technology ground, and could only muster a below-par 75-9 in their 20 overs. Left-arm medium pace bowler Udeshika Prabodhani led the Sri Lankan attack with three wickets and Kavisha Dilhari took two with her offspin.  Sri Lanka sauntered to their target with 21 balls to spare.
Earlier, the Indians routed Bangladesh for 51 on the same ground with all-rounder Pooja Vastrakar, only drafted into the squad as a last-minute replacement, taking four wickets.
They wasted no time in racing to an eight-wicket victory with more than 11 overs remaining.

No Training for Afghan Women Volleyball Team 
The Afghanistan women’s volleyball team has lamented training conditions at the Asian Games and are concerned they will not be ready for an event where they are participating in defiance of the country’s Taliban rulers.
Khushal Malakzai, who runs the nation’s volleyball programme, said the team had not been able to practise on a court since arriving in Hangzhou last Thursday and were confined to doing fitness work in the gym. “We still haven’t been able to train,” he told Reuters. 
Malakzai said that they had been allocated one training session two days before the competition starts on Saturday. “I don’t know why they can’t have training for an hour or two when they have all these facilities. “If they’re not training on court, then it’s like starting from zero.”