World stars gather to compete at ASIAD 19

Host China has topped the ASIAD medal tally since 1982, a full 40 years spanning 10 Asian Games. At the Games held 5 years ago in Indonesia, China won a total of 132 gold medals, nearly twice as many as the second-placed team, Japan, which only won 75 gold medals. At this Hangzhou Asian Games, host China is expected to continue to dominate continental sports with the world's number one athletes.

"Queen" Hou Yi-fan

For many years, the world of men's chess has been famous for the "king" Magnus Carlsen, the only one to have an Elo rating of over 2,800 in all three categories: standard, rapid and blitz. Meanwhile, the "queen" Hou Yi-fan is the one who broke almost all records when chess opened up the playing field to women since the 1920s.

The No. 1 position is still controversial when experts are still hesitant between Vera Menchik, a 7-time world champion and 21-time British champion, and Judith Polgar, the Hungarian female chess player with the highest Elo in history (2,753) and who has had no rival for 26 years, only lacking the world championship title to become the greatest player. Meanwhile, the No. 2 position naturally belongs to Hou Yi-fan.

Queen Hou Yi-fan dreams of winning gold medal in her hometown Hangzhou. Photo: FIDE

Ranked 13th in the list of women's world chess champions, Hou Yi-fan is the youngest player to hold the world No. 1 ranking and also the youngest female player to qualify as a grandmaster at the age of 14 years, 6 months and 2 days. Previously, 12-year-old Hou Yi-fan was the youngest player to participate in the FIDE Women's World Chess Championship in 2006 in Russia. She was the 2007 All-China Chess Champion at the age of 13. Hou Yi-fan became the youngest world champion (both male and female) in history after defeating compatriot Ruan Lofei in the final of the 2010 Women's World Chess Championship at the age of 16.

To date, Hou Yi-fan has won the Women's World Chess Championship four times (2010, 2011, 2013, 2016). She surpassed Judit Polgar to hold the No. 1 position on the FIDE rankings for the first time in March 2015 and has only left this position once, when Polgar reclaimed the top spot in August 2015. Hou Yi-fan is the third female player - after Judit Polgar and Humpy Koneru - to have an Elo rating exceeding 2,600, with her highest being 2,686 in March 2015 and currently at 2,624.

Never leaving any negative reputation both on and off the stage, Hou Yi-fan is the pride of Chinese chess. This country has produced the most female champions in the history of world chess, in addition to Hou Yi-fan, there are also Xie Jun (1991, 1999 world champion), Zhu Chen (2001), Xu Yu-hua (2006), Tan Zhongyi (2017), Ju Wen-jun (2018, 2019, 2020).

In 2020, Hou Yi-fan was appointed as a professor at Shenzhen University. The youngest female professor in the history of this prestigious school, she studied International Relations in Beijing and was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to study Public Policy at Oxford University. Her hometown is Jiangsu, but she recently decided to move to Hangzhou and is full of opportunities to win in her new hometown when she was part of the Chinese chess team attending the 19th Asian Games.

Sun Ying-sha - Queen of Table Tennis

In Sun Ying-sha's professional table tennis career, the women's singles gold medal at the ASIAD is one of the few rare titles that she is still missing from her massive collection of achievements.

Sun Ying-sha is currently ranked No. 1 in the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) rankings for women's singles, women's doubles and mixed doubles. The 23-year-old from Hebei, China, has won the Olympic title, the World Championship gold medal and even the Asian Championship. No tournament has been beyond her reach, except for the women's singles title at the Asian Games.

Sun Ying-sha determined to compete for the number 1 position in women's singles table tennis. Photo: ITTF

Since each country is only allowed to register 2 athletes to participate in the singles events, Sun Ying-sha and her teammate Wang Yi-di (world number 4) were given the responsibility of keeping the women's singles gold medal for the host country. This seems to be not an impossible task for this superstar duo as Chinese table tennis is the number 1 force, holding an almost absolute advantage in any tournament, at all levels from continental to world.

Chinese table tennis is set to win all seven gold medals at the 2023 Asian Games to consolidate its No. 1 position after the team won all seven gold medals at the Asian Championships in early September. Since 1974, Chinese table tennis has won a total of 66 gold medals at the Asian Games, including 18/19 championships at the last three games.

Not resting on their laurels or being complacent, the Chinese team attended the 19th ASIAD with a force of 5 female players all in the ITTF Top 5 (Sun Ying-sha, Wang Yi-di, Chen Meng, Wang Man-yu, Chen Xing-tong) and 5 famous male players including Fan Zhen-dong (No. 1), Wang Chu-qin (No. 2), Ma Long (No. 3), Liang Jing-kun (No. 6), Lin Gao-yuan (No. 7).

In addition to the singles competition, Sun Ying-sha will also pair up with Wang Man-yu in the women's doubles and compete in the mixed doubles with Wang Chu-qin. The 23-year-old's target is 3 gold medals, including the women's singles championship at the 19th Asian Games.

Source: https://nld.com.vn/the-thao/sao-the-gioi-tu-hoi-tranh-tai-o-asiad-19-20230923203004125.htm