Men's wushu: Wu takes nanquan crown in style

Triumphant Chinese Wu Caibao took gold in the men's wushu nandao three events combined and celebrated in style by achieving his highest score of the competition to secure his crown.

The 19 year-old Guangzhou wushu artist had earlier won the nanquan (southern-fist) and nandao (southern-broadsword) rounds with scores 9.82 and 9.80 but performed even better in the final round, the nangun (southern-style cudgel), with an amazing 9.85, to complete the trio of disciplines with an overall score of 29.47.

World No 4 Pham Quoc Khanh of Vietnam moved from the bronze medal position after two events to take silver with 29.07 points having finished second in the nangun.

That meant Korea's Lee Seung Kuen - in second place for the opening two stages - had to settle for bronze just 0.02 behind Quoc Khanh.

He Jing De of Hong Kong, China narrowly missed out on the medals by 0.05 points despite coming third in the nangun.

Wu said afterwards: "The score is in my expectation. I am very happy with my performance today.

"During the last half of the routine, I relaxed a little because at that stage my strength wasn't as strong as in the beginning of the routine, so the rest of my performance wasn't as smooth as the first part. This has been a bad habit for a long time."

Silver-medallist Pham said: "I didn't expect anything specific from my score. I just wanted to try my best. In fact, I didn't feel very prepared and was quite nervous, and not as relaxed as I could have been."

"The traffic on the way here made me really tense and I felt as if my performance would not be smooth."

Fifth-placed Indonesian competitor Heryanto, speaking before the medals were announced, said the Doha 2006 crowds inspired him during his routine.

He said: "The score was higher than I expected because my best is in the nanquan. This is my first Asian Games. If I win a medal it would be 'oh my god!'.

"To compete in such a big event gave me improvement, especially in the preparation for my routines.

"I have never seen so many spectators. Their support helps me perform better. I was most nervous in this last event because I wanted to do better than in the first two events [nanquan and nandao]. My coach told me to perform as if I was training and I feel like I did as good as in training."

Fourth-placed He, when interviewed, also hadn't heard the results.

He said: "I am very excited with my performance, but I think the score is a little bit low. This is the first time I take part in the Asian Games. When taking part in such an important tournament you have to be careful and avoid any small mistakes. If there is one mistake, you will fail. Today, I didn't make any mistakes.

"If I am fourth, then it's less than I expected. I was hoping to come into the top three. I think I performed OK today. I tried my best."

15th Asian Games, Doha 2006