China captured both men's and women's all-around gymnastics gold medals on day 3 as host Qatar celebrated for winning three medals at the Asian Games on Monday.
World champion Yang Wei beat Japanese duo Hisashi Mizutori and Hiroyuki Tomita to lift the men's all-around title, while teenager He Ning and Zhou Zuoru won top two places in the women's competition, defeating DPR Korean Hong Su Jong to the third.
Thus the Chinese gymnasts, who won eight out of 14 gold medals in the world championships last October, have swept all the four titles so far, following their victories in both team events.
Yang Wei, who scored 95.500 points ahead of Mizutori with 93.400 and arch rival Tomita with 93.250, said he hoped to win more in Doha.
It was a day for the host to celebrate after they broke a two-day medal drought and won three.
Their markswomen won their country the first medal from the 10m target team thanks to a special Asiad rule. They were awarded the bronze despite finishing last.
With only three teams competing, there should be no bronze medals awarded but Max Muckl, technical delegate from the International Shooting Federation, said that it's legal to award the bronze to Qatar because "the rule No. 15 of the Asian Games shooting regulations says that the minimum team entries requirements is three."
Chinese-born chess player Zhu Chen, a former world champion who married Qatari Mohamad Al Medaihki, brought her adopted country a second bronze in the women's rapid chess event. Al Hajri Saed and Al Qatan Abdulla became the host's heroes by winning a silver in the men's doubles bowling.
China, which collected 29 gold medals during the first two days,slowed their pace on Monday but still managed to win nine, extending their gold tally to 38. Japan remains second with 12 and South Korea third with seven.
Japanese swimmers, led by double Olympic champion Kosuke Kitajima, ruled the pool by grabbing four gold medals out of seven.
China won two and the other went to Syria's Rafd Zyad Almasri.
Kitajima, under fire after losing to Vladislav Polyakov of Kazakhstan in the 50m breaststroke on Sunday, retained his 100m breaststroke title first and went on to get a second with teammates in the 4X200m freestyle relay.
Miracles were created in the weightlifting competitions, Thailand's Olympic champion Pawina Thongsuk claimed the gold in women's 63kg category, recording a world record lift of 142kg in the clean and jerk. It was the third division she had competed in during the last five years.
Four years ago, she was the winner in 69kg class at the Busan Asiad. Two years ago, she won the Olympic gold medal in 75kg category in Athens. And one year ago, she took the gold in 63kg in the Doha world championships. And she might change it for a fourth time.
Kazakhstan emerged as a big winner in shooting with two gold medals, splitting the day's four golds with traditional power China. The central Asian country also took a third from men's chess rapid by Murtas Kazhgaleyev and stood fourth with five golds in the medal tally.
South Korea won three gold medals on Monday from the mixed doubles of soft tennis, the team dressage of equestrian and men's 73kg judo.
The day's other three judo gold medals went to Mongolia's Hsagaanbaatar (men's 66kg), DPR Korea's An Kum (women's 52kg) and China's Xu Yan (women's 57kg).
Elsewhere, Chinese basketball team, without NBA star Yao Ming, beat Uzbekistan 91-68 for their second straight win in Doha.
Chinese women's soccer team thrashed Jordan 12-0 in the preliminary matches.
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Director: Liu Chi