China claims sixth Wushu gold at Asiad

JAKARTA, Aug. 22 -- Qi Xinyi snatched the sixth Wushu gold medal for China at the 2018 Asian Games by winning the women's Chang Quan here on Wednesday.

Qi scored 9.74 points to win her first Asian Games championship title in the event with nine players competing.

Li Yi of Macau, China took the silver with 9.72 points, while the bronze medal went to Hoang Thi Phuong Giang of Vietnam with 9.71 points.

Earlier, Chen Zhou Li contributed the fifth Wushu gold for China by winning the men's Taijiquan and Taijijian Combined.

China has shown dominance in this sport that it founded. Sun Peiyuan captured the first gold medal at the 2018 Asian Games from the men's Changquan on Sunday, and Tang Lu won the women's Nanquan and Nandao Combined on Monday.

Guo Mengjiao was crowned in the women's Jianshu and Qiangshu Combined and Wu Zhao Hua the men's Daoshu and Gunshu Combined on Tuesday.

Wushu was first incorporated into the Asian Games in 1990. The sport comprises Taolu and Sanda. Changquan, or long fist boxing, featuring imitations of animal moves, is the basic and main style of modern Wushu, mostly being performed in northern China.

More than 220 athletes will compete for 14 gold medals in Wushu at this Asiad, a full contact sport derived from the Chinese martial art. The Chinese are seen the favorites in the 13 events they are participating, as China has won 53 of the possible 75 gold medals in wushu at the Asian Games.

The 18th Asiad will include 465 events in 40 sports, among which 330 events from 32 sports will feature in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. The 2018 Asian Games, attracting more than 10,000 athletes, run through Sept. 2.