China tops medal tally with 19 golds on snow at Harbin Winter Asiad

HARBIN, 14 February (BelTA - Xinhua) - With a comeback victory in the biathlon women's 4x6km relay on Thursday, China secured its 19th gold medal in snow events at the Harbin Asian Winter Games, marking the highest number ever for the Chinese delegation at a single Winter Asiad.

While all snow events concluded on Thursday, the men's and women's ice hockey and curling titles will be decided on Friday, the final day of competition.

China has already topped the medal tally with 32 gold, 26 silver, and 24 bronze medals, followed by South Korea and Japan in second and third place with 15 and nine golds respectively. The host nation tied the record of 32 golds set by Kazakhstan at the 7th Astana-Almaty Asian Winter Games in 2011.

In the biathlon women's 4x6km relay, the Chinese quartet - Tang Jialin, Wen Ying, Chu Yuanmeng, and Meng Fanqi - recorded a time of 1 hour, 29 minutes, and 6.3 seconds to clinch the victory. The 26-year-old Meng delivered a stunning final leg to seal the win ahead of runner-up South Korea, while Kazakhstan took bronze.

In the men's 4x7.5km relay, Japan surged to claim the gold with a time of 1 hour, 24 minutes, and 20.3 seconds. Kazakhstan trailed by 58.4 seconds to take silver, while China finished third with a time of 1:25:32.7 after shooting errors.

Also in Yabuli, the men's and women's snowboard halfpipe finals scheduled for Thursday were canceled due to strong winds after multiple rescheduling attempts, with results from Wednesday's qualifying round used as the final standings. Japan's Sara Shimizu and South Korea's Kim Geon-hui were awarded gold in the women's and men's events respectively.

South Korea claimed the remaining two figure skating golds in the singles events, with Kim Chae-yeon scoring 219.44 points to win the women's title and Cha Jun-hwan topping the men's podium with a total of 281.69 points. "When I finished my free skate, I told myself - finally, I did it! The most satisfying part for me at the Harbin Asian Winter Games was landing a triple salchow in competition for the first time," the 18-year-old Kim said.

In ice hockey, Kazakhstan stunned China 3-1 in the men's semifinal, setting up a gold medal clash with Japan, who edged South Korea 4-3 in the other semifinal. The women's ice hockey tournament will conclude with China facing Japan, while South Korea meets Kazakhstan in the decisive round-robin matchup.

In curling, South Korea and the Philippines will battle for the men's gold, while China will take on South Korea in the women's gold medal match.

The Games' closing ceremony is scheduled for Friday night at the Harbin International Conference, Exhibition and Sports Center.