Xinhua News Agency, Jakarta, August 24 (reporter Xia Liang, Zhou Xin, Yang Ting) the swimming competition of the Jakarta Asian Games ended on the evening of 24th, and the Sino-Japanese War that ran through the whole period finally failed to win or lose, the Chinese and Japanese teams each drew 19 gold. Cheng Hao, the leader of the Chinese swimming team, said in an interview with reporters after the game that it was difficult to match the expectations before the game.
“There are 41 gold medals in swimming, 19 yuan for China and Japan, 2 yuan for Singapore and 1 yuan for South Korea. The whole is still in line with our pre-competition expectations.” Cheng Hao said that the results were compared and analyzed before the competition, and the final actual situation was basically consistent with the analysis.
In this Asian Games, among the 52 male and female athletes of the Chinese swimming team, 37 young players participated in the large-scale event for the first time. “During the 6-day competition, a group of young athletes also emerged. These are all good, such as Yuhai, Yan Zibei, and Ji Xinjie.” Cheng Hao said that although they failed to win the gold medal in the single event, there were some regrets, they also got exercise through such a competition as the Asian Games.
In female team members, Cheng Hao highlighted Wang Jianjiahe and Li blinger. Two 16-year-old “Xiaohua” became the “double insurance” for the Chinese team to win gold in the women’s mid-long distance freestyle project. The Chinese team also became the women’s 400 meters, the 800-meter and 1500-meter freestyle competitions successively won the championship and runner-up, reflecting a strong overall advantage.
As the “senior high school entrance examination” before the Tokyo Olympic Games, Cheng Hao said that 52 athletes from the preliminary to the final, everyone had a competition, it has fully achieved the goal of taking the Asian Games as the training for the Tokyo Olympic Games before going out.
It is worth mentioning that among the 19 gold medals won by the Chinese team, Sun Yang’s 400 m freestyle, the men’s 4 × 100 medley relay and Liu Xiang’s 50-meter backstroke won the gold medal, all of which were the world’s best results this year. Cheng Hao said: “It shows that in the past year of the World Championships in Budapest, we have basically completed the transition between new and old, and we believe that we will achieve better results in the Tokyo Olympics two years later.”
At this Asian Games, Sun Yang and Xu Jiayu won 4 gold and 5 gold respectively, becoming the leading figures in Chinese swimming. Cheng Hao said: “They have shown their due level and showed their indomitable fighting and never giving up spirit. Young athletes have also learned a lot from them. They have now become the mainstay of the Chinese swimming team, I hope to shine in the Tokyo Olympics.”
Compared with the men’s team, the overall performance of the women’s team is relatively low, but in Cheng Hao’s view, the situation of the swimming team’s “Yang Sheng Yin decline” is also improving. “The women’s team faces the problem of new and old alternation. Many players have just started to go to the international competition stage. They need events like the World Championships and the Asian Games to improve themselves. I think this kind of training is very meaningful to them.”