Wushu: China dominates sparring finals

After a days fighting, the men's sanshou, or sparring, wushu finalists were decided in the 52kg, 56kg, 60kg, 65kg, and 70kg categories.

It took three days to whittle down the hundreds of competitors battling it out in the various categories, but today's semifinal action left the best men standing.The bouts were contended in front of a capacity crowd at ASPIRE. Vietnam and Philippines both managed to send two fighters into the finals on Thursday, while China has four.

In the men's sanshou -52 kg, the two-time -48kg category world champion Rene Sornito Catalan of the Philippines won his bout in two rounds despite sustaining a nasty kick between the legs from Yemeni opponent Naji Al Ashwal. Catalan was on fire and looks to be well on track for Asian Games gold.

Quoc Vinh Phan of Vietnam and Khwanyuen Chanthra of Thailand appeared to be fairly even at the beginning of their bout, but Phan emerged with a 2-0 victory after managing to pull off a few trips and crash tackles.

The men's sanshou -56 kg fight between China's Li Teng and Korea's Kim Jun Yul almost turned into a wrestling match, with Li and Kim sticking close to each other and relying on throws and counter-throws to score. Li eventually succeeded in dampening the spirits of the raucous Korean supporters by downing Kim in two rounds.

Jalil Ataee of IR Iran was unable to defeat Lao sanshou boxer Phoxay Aphailath, who took the silver medal at last year's South East Asian Games in Manila. Ataee was not happy with the 0-2 result and left the arena sobbing with despair, while the Laotian was swept up and carried out on the shoulders of his overjoyed coach.

The -60 kg bouts saw Ma Chao of China book his place in the final after a cautious two-round match against Qin Zhijian of Macau, China. After the match Ma remarked that he considered today to be the most challenging of the tournament and that the final should be 'no problem' for him.

Alireza Sahra Neshini of IR Iran was successful in his fight against M Bimoljit Singh Mayanglabam of India. However, Sahra Neshini not so successful in his post match celebrations, managing to botch two somersault attempts.

The men's sanshou -65 kg pitted world champion Zhao Guangyong of China against Cai Liangchan of Macau, China. The champion dominated the Macau, China, challenger with a 2-0 victory, sending himself into a gold medal match against the winner of the second semifinal match, Duc Trung Nguyen of Vietnam, on Thursday.

Pakistan's Maratab Ali was unable to repeat his performance of Tuesday, 12 December, when in which he sent his opponent off the mat on a stretcher, losing to Nguyen in two rounds.

Wushu's heavyweight division, the -70 kg, disappointed because there was not much action and no surprises in the first semifinal of the afternoon, which saw 2005 world champion Xu Yanfei of China take down Ahn Yong Woon of Korea. Xu took advantage of his lower centre of gravity to counter Ahn's attacks with a throw.

Khosrow Minroo of IR Iran started the last semifinal match with a bang, using his longer reach to land several unanswered attacks on Eduard Ayangwa Folayang of the Philippines and win the first round. However Minoo quickly tired and lost the next round, eventually losing 1-2 to Folayang in the only bout of the evening to extend into a third round.

The finalists will meet tomorrow from 14:30 at Aspire Hall three.

15th Asian Games, Doha 2006