Doping hits Asian Games in Guangzhou

GUANGZHOU, China (AP) — And on the seventh day of competition, the Guangzhou Asian Games announced its first drug cheat.

Judo silver medalist Shokir Muminov was the first athlete caught for doping, with organizers announcing Friday that the 27-year-old from Uzbekistan had been disqualified from the games and stripped of his silver medal after failing a doping test.

Muminov lost the gold medal match in the 81-kilogram division to South Korea's Kim Jae-bum on Nov. 14.

Dr. Mani Jegathesan, chairman of the Olympic Council of Asia's medical committee, said Muminov's urine test taken after the competition showed traces of the banned stimulant Methylhexaneamine

The World Anti-Doping Agency recently loosened the classification of Methylhexaneamine for next year to the "specified stimulant" list, which covers drugs that are more susceptible to inadvertent use and can carry reduced penalties.

Sanctions for use of the drug can be reduced if athletes prove they did not intend to enhance performance. Penalties range from a warning to a two-year ban.

More than 10,000 athletes in 42 sports are competing in the games which end Nov. 27.

In the men's baseball final, South Korea beat Taiwan 9-3. South Korea moved ahead 2-1 in the second and then capitalized on some erratic pitching by Taiwan, scoring four runs in the third including two out-of-the-park shots by Lee Dae-ho and Kang Jung-ho.

Japan won the bronze by defeating China earlier in the day 6-2. Five of Japan's runs were scored in the first inning.

Nida Rashid scored an unbeaten 51 and took four wickets for 16 runs to lead Pakistan to the first-ever cricket gold medal awarded at the Asian Games with a 10-wicket victory over Bangladesh in the women's Twenty20 final

After being sent into bat, Bangladesh was bowled out for 92 in 20 overs. It was Pakistan's first gold at Guangzhou, after collecting silver in wushu and a bronze in snooker.

Earlier, Japan defeated China by seven wickets to clinch bronze. The men's competition starts on the weekend.

In men's football, North Korea is out of the tournament after losing 9-8 on penalties to United Arab Emirates after their quarterfinal ended in a scoreless draw. Japan advanced to the semifinals with a 1-0 win over Thailand. South Korea took on Uzbekistan and Iran played Oman in late matches.

In weightlifting, South Korea's Jang Mi-ran, dubbed the world's strongest woman, won gold in the super heavyweight class.

Jang lifted 130 kilograms in the snatch and 181 in the clean and jerk to finish with a total of 311. She was unsuccessful in her attempt to lift 188 in the clean and jerk, which would have broken her previous world record.

"I thought my form today was pretty good but ... now that the competition is over I'm sore all over," said Jang, an Olympic gold medalist and three-time world champion who's now looking ahead to the London Games in 2012. "This gives me more confidence and motivation for the read ahead."

Haeider Hamarasheid, who does his training in a river due to the lack of a rowing basin in Iraq, earlier gave his country its first medal of the games, taking a bronze in the men's single sculls. The race was won by Bajrang Lal Takhar, who gave India its second gold of the games.

Hamarasheid, one of five Iraqi rowers at the Asian Games, said when he told his friends two years ago that he would one day compete at the Olympics in rowing, they weren't sure whether to believe him.

"They were very surprised that there was such a sport in Iraq," Hamarasheid said. "The bronze medal has come at a good time, I will be in the newspaper and on the TV back home. People will start to know me and more importantly, start to know about rowing."

He said he trained twice a day in the river and had a good support team.

"I have to thank my teammates and coach. We are like a family. When I train late, they wait for me," he said. "When they train late, I wait for them."

Steven Wong won the BMX cycling gold for Hong Kong in a time of 30.37 seconds, about a second ahead of the minor medalists from Japan, Akifumi Sakamoto and Masahiro Sampei. Ma Liyun won the women's race.