Chinese sprinter Lao Yi celebrates after he surprisingly won the 100m gold medal in the Asia Games in Guangzhou on Monday evening.[Xinhua]

Chinese sprinter Lao Yi jumped to fame with a surprise 100m gold medal while the hosts' last flicker of hope in soccer was dampened with their women's team losing the bronze to South Korea.

Leading the medal tally all the way, China have piled up their gold medals to 154, more than half of of 304 gold medals on offer at the Nov.12-27 Games.

South Korea trail with 61 golds with Japan in third place with 32.

Twenty-seven titles were decided in archery, athletics, diving, bowling, chess, road cycling, equestrian, fencing, trampoline, tennis and wrestling, with all eyes on the track.

Lao, a 25-year-old nobody, clocked 10.24 seconds to become the first "Sprint King" from China in the Asian Games and stole the spotlight from former Olympic champion Liu Xiang.

Lao claimed the historical victory with Qatar's Samuel Francis in absentia. Francis, who set an Asian mark of 9.99 seconds in 2007, was disqualified in the semifinals on a false start.

"I had expected to break the national record, but I didn't make it," said Lao.

About an hour earlier, Liu, a former world record holder and 2004 Olympic champion, launched his campaign for a third straight Asiad gold, breezing into the men's 110m hurdles final by timing 13.48 seconds.

The 27-year-old, who limped off the track at the Beijing Olympic Games after getting into the starting blocks, has been slow to recover from surgery on his Achilles tendon after the Beijing Games.

His only impressive result after comeback was at a September 2009 meet in Shanghai where he timed 13.15 seconds.

Liu, who became the first Chinese Olympic track gold medalist at the 2004 Athens Games, told China's national TV that he was planning to run within 13.20 seconds in the final.

"I don't care about my ranking," he said. "Only the result (time) matters."

China lost a medal that really matters on Monday.

The Chinese women's soccer team lost the bronze playoff 2-0 to South Korea, leaving the Asian Games without a medal for the first time.

Four years ago, the Chinese "Steel Roses", former world runners-up, picked the bronze in Doha after beating South Korea 2-0.

Later on Monday evening, Japan nabbed a 1-0 victory over DPR Korea in a repeat of the 2006 women's soccer final, with a 73th-minute goal scored by Azusa Iwashimizu.

Meanwhile, young Chinese divers won the first two events as Shi Tingmao/Wang Han snatched women's 3m synchro springboard and Zhou Luxin/Yang Liguang nailed the men's 10m synchro platform, both with a big lead over their rivals.

The hosts also dominated the trampoline competitions as Huang Shanshan beat teammate and Olympic champion He Wenna to defend her women's individual title and Dong Dong and Tu Xiao celebrated a 1-2 finish in the men's individual final.

Chinese Taipei commanded Monday's tennis court, sweeping the women's doubles gold and silver and won the mixed doubles over India's defending champions, while the only other tennis title went to Indian pair Devvarman Sk and Singh Sanam Krishan, who survived a men's doubles final over China.

The China-South Korea rivalry was extended to the finals of the men's archery team, men's sabre team and go chess mixed doubles, and the hosts only managed a narrow win at fencing and lost the other two.

A chaos took place in cycling as South Korean rider Park Sung-baek crossed the line first, only to be disqualified for illegal sprinting in the men's individual road race, leaving Hong Kong veteran Wong Kam Po the winner.

(Xinhua News Agency November 23, 2010)