Li won the race with 24 points after outsprinting Lee Min Hye of Korea, who finished a point behind and couldn't quite repeat the gold medal she won in the women's individual pursuit.
Chanpeng Nontain of Thailand claimed bronze although with 11 points she was well behind the top two, Li and Lee.
Li was magnanimous in her victory on Thursday 14 December: "I won a [gold] medal and half of it belongs to my teammates and our team. The other half belongs to me. It is both of our efforts to win this medal,"Â she said afterwards.
"I am glad to win the gold and I am thankful to my country and teammates. Our Chinese team have gained so many gold medals [here], I just wanted to add one to it."Â
But silver medallist Lee was downhearted despite leaving Doha with a duo of medals. "I did pretty bad today,"Â said the 21 year-old. "I was leading during the race so I expected to win. The Chinese rider [Li Yan] sprinted and won."Â
Nontain, though, was happier with her bronze medal. "I was delighted to collect Thailand's first cycling medal of the Games,"Â she commented.
"This is the first medal for Thailand in cycling track. The race was very exciting, and I don't think anyone expected me to be a real competition. The Chinese, Japanese and Korean teams are very strong. The competition has been tough."Â
15th Asian Games, Doha 2006
Posted December 16th, 2006 by COBA
