Jakarta: China’s Sun Peiyuan won the first gold medal in wushu men’s changquan competition at the 18th Asian Games here on Sunday.
Sun scored 9.75 to win the gold in the same city where he had won the world title in 2015, reports EFE news agency.
Indonesia’s Edgar Marvelo, who was a favourite to win the competition, followed with 9.72 and the silver while Tsai Tse-min of Taiwan followed with 9.70 and a bronze.
Defending champion South Korea’s Lee Ha-sung finished 12th with 9.31, while Japan’s Sakamoto Ren scored 9.64 coming seventh and 18 year-old Bijay Sinjali of Nepal finished 14th with 8.25.
The one-hour long competition started at 9 a.m. and was held for the third time at the Asian Games after Guangzhou 2010 and Incheon 2014.
On Wednesday, the women’s changquan event will be held at the 2018 Asian Games, also for the third time after 2010 and 2014.
The changquan (an external martial arts style from northern China) competition is the first of 462 in which medals are to be won, spread across 40 sporting disciplines, over 15 days here and in Palembang.