JAKARTA, Indonesia – After waiting so long to win this title, Sun Yang really wanted to see his flag flying at the Asian Games.
China's greatest swimmer finally won the 200-meter freestyle gold after placing second at the 2010 and '14 editions of the continental games.
Sun, a three-time Olympic gold medalist and nine-time world champion, had climbed on the lane rope, straddling a leg on either side, and held both arms up in triumph after touching the wall in 1 minute 45.43 seconds Sunday on the first night of finals.
He later climbed a tiered platform full of photographers to shake hands with his supporters in the stands, and choked back tears as he returned to the pool deck.
Everything was going to plan until he was standing atop the podium and a technical malfunction resulted in the flags of the three medalists dropping to the ground. The 6-foot-7 (2-meter) Sun got off the podium, walked to some officials and demanded they do it again.
Officials reattached the flags to the broken metal hoist but were unable to raise them again. The anthems were played and Sun later played down the incident, saying he was just relieved to win the event.
"I've waited eight years for this title," Sun said.
Sun is targeting victories in every freestyle event from the 200- to the 1,500-meters and kicked it off with a comfortable win, finishing more than a second clear of Katsuhiro Matsumoto of Japan.
Japan picked up three of the first seven swimming golds, with Rikako Ikee leading off the women's 4x100-meter relay team to a games record after Daiya Seto's win in the men's 200-meter butterfly and Satomi Suzuki's win in the women's 100 breaststroke.
China claimed the first gold medal of the games in the morning session with Sun Peiyuan's acrobatic victory in wushu's changquan discipline. Sun scored 9.75 to claim a gold medal in the same city where he won the world title in 2015, holding off local hope Edgar Marvelo and Tsai Tse-min of Taiwan.
In one of the biggest upsets of the day, Vietnam edged Japan 1-0 on Quang Hai Nguyen's left-foot shot from the edge of the area after a defensive blunder in the third minute to top Group D.
There were 21 finals on the program for the day across the host cities of Jakarta and Palembang.
Taiwan won the first of the gold medals in Palembang — on the island of Sumatra and more than 400 kilometers (250 miles) northwest of the capital — with Lin Ying-shin and Lu Shao-chuan combining for a games record 494.1 points in the 10-meter air rifle mixed team final. China collected silver and India's Apurvi Chandela and Ravi Kumar took bronze.
Also in Palembang, a joint Koreas rowing team finished last in the first heat of the lightweight men's four competition behind Indonesia, Uzbekistan and Hong Kong.
South Koreans Kim Su-min and Park Tae-hyun and North Koreans Yun Chol Jin and Kim Chol Jin only started training together last month after their countries agreed to enter joint teams for three rowing events, a dragon boat crew and women's basketball.
The South Koreans were more successful in their traditional form of martial arts, securing two of the first taekwondo poomsae medals ever awarded at the Asian Games.
Kang Min-sung beat Koorosh Bakhtiyar of Iran in the men's individual final. South Korea won the men's team gold medal, with China taking silver and Philippines picking up bronze.
Defia Ronsmaniar won Indonesia's first gold of the games after beating Marjan Salahshouri of Iran in the women's individual poomsae final. Thailand upset South Korea for the women's team title.
In a wrestling upset, India's two-time Olympic medalist Kumar Sushil was beaten by Adam Batirov in his opener in the 74-kilogram class and slumped out of medal contention when the Bahrain grappler lost in the quarterfinals.
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John Pye is at https://twitter.com/byJohnPye
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