Thais target 2 more golds in takraw
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Thais target 2 more golds in takraw

Orapa secures bronze in ju-jitsu competition

Thai ju-jitsu star Orapa Senatham, left, defeats compatriot Rattanaporn Thatthong to win bronze in the women's 57kg class at the Hangzhou Asian Games on Friday.
Thai ju-jitsu star Orapa Senatham, left, defeats compatriot Rattanaporn Thatthong to win bronze in the women's 57kg class at the Hangzhou Asian Games on Friday.

Hangzhou: Thailand will look to complete a sweep of sepak takraw gold medals on the last day of the discipline at the Asian Games on Saturday.

The Thai men's and women's regu teams booked their berths in the finals after they won their semi-final matches at Jinhua Sports Centre Gymnasium on Friday.

Thailand had already won the men's and women's team regu events on Sept 29.

The men's team will meet arch-rivals Malaysia in the gold medal match.

They eased past Vietnam 2-0 (21-5, 21-7) while Malaysia defeated the Philippines 2-0 (21-15, 21-11) in the semi-finals.

The Thai team were led by Sittipong Khamchan, Pattarapong Yupadee and Pichet Pansan with Siriwat Sakha and Varayut Jantarasena on the bench.

The Thai men had defeated Malaysia to win the team regu gold medal.

The Thai women's team defeated India 2-0 (21-10, 21-13) while Vietnam beat South Korea 2-0 (21-9, 21-7) in the last four on Friday.

Thailand's players are Primprapha Kaewkhamsai, Manlika Bunthod, Wiphada Chitphuan, Sirinan Khiaopak and Wassana Soiraya.

They had won the team regu title after defeating South Korea.

Thailand did not take part in the quadrant competition as Myanmar took gold in the men's event and Vietnam won the women's title.

Thailand will be pinning their hopes on the sepak takraw teams to match -- and surpass -- their achievement in the 2018 Asian Games in Indonesia where they claimed 11 gold medals.

At press time last night, Thailand had 10 golds at Hangzhou 2022 which ends on Sunday.

In ju-jitsu, Thailand's Orapa Senatham defeated compatriot Rattanaporn Thatthong to win bronze in the women's 57kg class on Friday.

The event was won by the Philippines' Annie Ramirez who beat Galina Duvanova of Kazakhstan in the gold medal bout.

Meanwhile, China's Liu Huanhua produced an incredible final lift of 233kg to snatch weightlifting gold from Olympic and world champion Akbar Djuraev.

Liu's winning total of 418kg was the equivalent of hauling a grand piano over his head and relegated a dumbstruck Djuraev into silver.

The Uzbek had celebrated moments earlier believing his final lift for a 417kg total was enough.

Another Uzbek, Ruslan Nurudinov, took bronze back on 391kg after an error-strewn competition in the 109kg event, a weight division that will not feature at the Olympics next year.

Four of the nine athletes crashed out with three no-lifts, including one of the pre-event medal favourites, Reza Dehdar of Iran.

Liu won the world championship 102kg title in Riyadh last month, a category that will feature in Paris, but he moved up to 109kg for the first time in search of Asian Games medals.

The Chinese lifter was not able to bulk up for the heavier division, weighing in at 99.5kg, yet still lifted 14kg more than the 404kg total he achieved to win his 102kg world title.

"This is at home. I could not fail," Liu said. "The crowd was so enthusiastic that they lifted me up and I had this driving force inside me, and that's why I was able to put in this performance and win the gold medal."

India crushed Bangladesh by nine wickets to set up a gold medal match against Afghanistan as they bid to become Asian Games champions on their first attempt.

India's young side made light work of a rattled Bangladesh in the Hangzhou semi-finals but could face stiffer resistance in today's title-decider. 

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