Asians making presence felt

Asian athletes are off to a red-hot start as they figure prominently in the medal standings in the first week of action of the Paris Olympics.

Asian superpowers China, Japan and South Korea have landed in the top 10 while Hong Kong came up with an inspiring performance to emerge 15th in the medal table of this 206-nation spectacle.

After dominating the 19th Asian Games with more than 200 gold medals last year, the Chinese deployed 388 athletes and immediately imposed their might as they dominated the medal table with 13 gold, nine silver and nine bronze medals in the early stretch of the Summer Games.

Their golden harvest came from shooting and diving in which they clinched a combined eight of their 13 gold medals that put them in a perfect spot to win their first overall title since hosting the Summer Games in Beijing in 2008.

Swimming, which the Chinese were expected to dominate, didn’t contribute much with only Pan Zhanle emerging with a gold medal around his neck following his record-breaking performance in the men’s 100-meter freestyle event.

“They were pretty much flawless, which was amazing,” British diver Thomas Daley said after settling for the silver medal behind Chinese titans Lian Junjie and Yang Hao in the men’s synchronized 10-meter platform event.

“Sometimes in training, we watch how they dive and it gives us a little bit of hope. But then, they turned it on.”

Not to be outdone are the Japanese and the South Koreans, who plucked medal counts of 8-4-6 and 7-5-4, respectively, to trail behind No. 2 France, No. 3, Australia, No. 4 United States and No. 5 Great Britain.

The Japanese, who finished third with 27 gold medals when they hosted the Tokyo Olympics three years ago, drew their gold medals from their national sport, judo, as well as skateboarding, fencing and gymnastics.

The Koreans, on the other hand, dominated the shooting and archery to emerge on top of other powerhouse countries like Italy, Netherlands and Canada in the top 10.

But the most surprising team was Hong Kong.

The former Crown colony made a lot of heads turn when it won two gold medals in fencing for a 15th-place performance, thanks to Vivian Kong who swept the world off its feet when he displayed incredible grace under pressure to win the women’s individual epee event.

Kong’s triumph was greatly celebrated in Hong Kong and even mainland China with thousands of aspiring athletes suddenly taking up the sport after getting inspired by her journey to Olympic glory.