Doha: The near and the far - Kuwait and Kazakhstan - picked up Asian Games gold medals on Sunday at the wind-blown Lusail Shooting Complex in the desert north of the Qatari capital.
China, continuing its dominating performance, won four more gold medals and one of its weightlifters set three world records. Lifter Chen Yanqing set world records for the snatch, clean-and-jerk and total weight in the women's 58-kg class.
And China added three more golds - including a world-record equaling performance in the women's 10-metre air pistol team event - to its impressive first-day performance of 16 golds in 20 medal events on Saturday.
Abdulrahman Al Faihan, Khaled Almudhaf and Naser Meqlad led Kuwait, which sits due north of Qatar on the Persian Gulf, to its first gold medal in the men's team trap. Meqlad later won Kuwait's second of the day with an individual win in the trap. "It is too windy and it does affect me a bit, but everyone is competing under these conditions," said Meqlad.
Kazakhstan, a former Soviet republic 7,000 km to the northeast of Qatar, won its first gold when Sergey Belyayev, Vitaliy Dovgun and Juriy Melsitov combined to win the men's 50-meter rifle prone team event.
China, the 2008 Olympic hosts, won 150 golds at the last Asian Games in Busan, South Korea, and look destined to top that figure by the time these games end December 15.
The gusty winds that buffeted the shooters forced organisers to shorten the length of the men's cycling road race at the Corniche in downtown Doha.
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The officials determined that the winds, which were gusting up to 65 kph, could have forced the cyclists to finish after nightfall, so they cut the length from its scheduled 200 km to 156 km.
"The predicted high winds would have had the cyclists finishing in the dark, so we have reduced the race from four laps to three for the safety of the riders," said Graham Sycamore, the cycling competitions manager.
The high winds and choppy water at West Bay Lagoon tested rowers on the first day of competition, but failed to slow China's impressive performance - the favourites won all four of their heats, despite most of the races being run into a fierce headwind.
The weather has been an issue thus far at the Games, with rain affecting the opening ceremonies on Friday and causing some water damage at venues on Saturday.
Elsewhere today, three players had three RBIs each and Jang Won-sam allowed one hit in five innings as defending baseball champion South Korea won for the first time at Doha, a 12-2 decision over winless Philippines.
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