Taekwondo star Panipak Wongpattanakit secured the first gold medal of the Hangzhou Asian Games for Thailand, defeating China's Guo Qing in the women's 49kg final packed with drama and a dose of controversy yesterday.
The 26-year-old from Surat Thani rallied from 6-0 down in the final round to beat the home athlete 12-9 for a 2-1 win.
The top-seeded Thai had won the first round 7-6 and Guo took the second 2-1.
In the third round, the second-seeded Chinese raced to a 6-0 lead when suddenly the score soared to 23-0 in favour of Guo.
The Thai team then protested and after a lengthy review the fight resumed with the Chinese leading 6-0.
With about one minute remaining after the restart, Panipak landed four consecutive head kicks for a 12-6 advantage to effectively end the contest.
"I have never seen anything like this. I was shocked when the score was 23-0," said an emotional Panipak.
"This was my last Asian Games and I gave my all. I am very happy."
It was her second Asian Games gold medal after her success in Indonesia in 2018.
Nicknamed 'Tennis,' Panipak has said she will retire after the 2024 Olympics in Paris where she will chase her second Games title following her achievement at Tokyo 2020.
Meanwhile, Thai sailors Weka Bhanubandh and Noppassorn Khunboonjan have been assured of gold medals.
Weka and Noppassorn held an unassailable lead with one race to go in the ILCA4 boy's and girls' dinghy competitions respectively.
In table tennis, the Thai women's team won the country's first ever Asian Games medal in the sport although they were outclassed 3-0 by China in the semi-finals.
Thai taekwondo fighter Panipak Wongpattanakit, left, competes against China's Guo Qing in the women's 49kg final at the Asian Games in Hangzhou on Monday.
Suthasini Sawettabut lost to Sun Yingsha 3-0, Orawan Paranang was defeated 3-0 by Wang Manyu and Tamolwan Khetkhuan lost to Chen Meng 3-0. The losing semi-finalists receive bronze medals.
Thailand are hoping to win at least 15 gold medals at Hangzhou 2022 which ends on Oct 8.
First world record
India claimed the first world record of the Hangzhou Asian Games.
The Indian trio of Divyansh Panwar, Rudrankksh Patil and Aishwary Tomar blew away the field with a new world best 1,893.7 points to win the men's 10m air rifle team event on day two of the multi-sports extravaganza.
They beat the previous mark of 1,893.3 set by China last month and in doing so won India's first gold of a Games where the hosts have swept 32 of the 51 titles decided so far.
"In the 10m event they are both perfect athletes," Tomar said of his teammates. "Playing with them is huge, it's really good."
India claimed their second gold in the afternoon when they defeated Sri Lanka in the final of the women's cricket by 19 runs.
Another shooting world record fell to Chinese teenager Sheng Lihao in the men's 10m air rifle with his 253.3 points surpassing teammate Yu Haonan's 252.8 from Rio four years ago.
"I had good luck in the final. I did quite well today, I was basically smooth," said the 18-year-old, a Tokyo Olympic silver medallist.
In other action, Mazel Paris Alegado -- aged just nine -- said it was "so fun" competing in skateboarding.
Thought to be the youngest athlete in Hangzhou and representing the Philippines, she qualified for the "women's" park final and came seventh out of eight.
The competition was won by comparative veteran Hinano Kusaki from Japan, aged 15. China's Chen Ye, also just 15, won the men's park in skateboarding.
China's Xu Jiayu successfully defended his Asian Games 50m backstroke title, adding to the 100m gold he has already claimed in Hangzhou.
The 28-year-old, the bronze medallist at this year's world championships, touched in 24.38sec to beat teammate Wang Gukailai (24.88) and Japan's Ryosuke Irie (25.15).
At the Fuyang Water Sports Centre, Zhang Liang became the most successful Asian Games rower of all time.
China's Zhang won the men's single sculls to add to his men's double sculls gold from Sunday and now has five Asian Games titles from four editions.
