Gold winner Li Ping of China competes during the women's -53kg weightlifting event at the 16th Asian Games in Guangzhou on November 14, 2010. China made it four golds from a possible four after Li, with two world records, and Zhang Jie won their weightlifting classes on the second day of Asian Games competition. Getty ImagesSTR/Getty Images
China's relentless medal-making machine roared back into life after being temporarily halted by South Korea's marksmen, with weightlifting records and domination in the pool at the Asian Games on Sunday.
Li Ping defended her 2006 Doha title in the women's 53-kg weightlifting in style, lifting 103kg in the snatch to surpass Ri Song-Hui's mark in 2002 by a kilogram, then rode the momentum to smash the combined total record by four kilograms after lifting 127kg in the clean and jerk.
Willed on by ecstatic home fans, the 22-year-old from China's central Hunan province then tried to break her own 129kg record in the clean and jerk, but missed out on her third attempt at 103kg.
Li forecast a short shelf-life for the marks saying: "I want to break those records as soon as possible and I don't want to have to wait until the 2012 Olympic Games."
Her triumph crowned another domineering day by the hosts who took five out of six titles on offer in the pool.
The much-hyped battle for supremacy between China and bitter rivals Japan in the pool appears in danger of fizzling out, after the Japanese managed only two silvers.
China and Japan claimed 16 gold medals apiece in a furious toe-to-toe slugfest at the 2006 Doha Games, but the hosts have surged ahead with nine golds to their rivals' two with four days of the swimming competition left.
Olympic champion Park Tae-Hwan was the lone voice of dissent against the Chinese onslaught, the South Korean pinup-boy defending his 200 metres freestyle title from Doha and shaving his Asian record by 0.05 seconds.
"I am very happy yet my races in the Games are not even half way through," Park told reporters after throwing a bouquet of flowers to an appreciative female fan in the crowd.
"I hope I can do well in future competitions."
KITAJIMA UPSTAGED
After Park's brief theft of the limelight, China snatched it back when Xie Zhi upstaged Japan's multiple Olympic champion Kosuke Kitajima to win gold in the men's 50 metres breaststroke.
While not his strongest distance, Kitajima's fourth place finish left him nonplussed.
"I don't know what to say. Even though it is my best result of this year, I did not get a medal," said the 28-year-old, who defended his Olympic 100 and 200 metres breaststroke titles at Beijing and is Japan's marquee athlete at these Games.
China's swimmers helped propel the team's gold haul to 37 after two days of competition, with further titles picked up in track cycling, canoe and kayaking and their native martial art of Wushu on Sunday.
The hosts have set themselves the task of beating their 165 golds and 316 medals at the 2006 Doha Asia Games, and one competing team alleged the harvest had been given an unfair kick-along by local organisers.
Thailand's kayaking team slammed competition officials at the whitewater slalom event, accusing them of ignoring a penalty to get a Chinese kayaker into the medals.
Germany-raised Thai Hermann Ludwig Husslein said officials' failure to penalise bronze-winner Xian Jinbin for hitting a gate had cost him a medal.
"For sure they'll do anything to get their competitors a medal. They are like cheating all the time," he told Reuters.
The venue's organising body denied any unfair treatment.
After China took all but one of the shooting titles on day one, South Korea hit back with their own barrage, sweeping all four golds on Sunday as the men's and women's teams found the mark in the 10 metres air pistol.
South Korea picked up further golds in judo, track cycling and equestrian to lie a distant second behind China with 13 golds, but remain five in front of Japan.
Thirty medals will be contested on day three of competition, with Kitajima expected to spark Japan's stuttering swimming team back into gear when he bids for a second successive defence of his 100 metres breaststroke title.
(Additional reporting by James Pomfret, Meg Shen and Sabrina Mao; Editing by Alison Wildey; To query or comment on this story email sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)