Massive medal haul can't gloss over problems

Despite a massive lead on the final medal table, China's Asian Games campaign was far from perfect, said Xiao Tian, deputy delegation chief, citing poor performances in the big-ball sports and major Olympic events.

Winning 151 gold medals, 25 more than the combined totals of Japan and host South Korea, proved China's continued supremacy in the Asian sports community but that still was not enough to cement its status as a world sports power, Xiao said.

"We achieved some breakthroughs in some key events but still, in most of the events we won, the results would not have been competitive enough against the world's elite at the Olympics," Xiao said at the final briefing in Incheon.