Silver lining for young and old athletes at Asian Games

Women’s vault gold medalist South Korea’s Yeo Sejeong, centre, stands with silver medalist Uzbekistan’s Oksana Chusovitana, left, and bronze medalist North Korea’s Pyon Ry Yong during the medal ceremony for apparatus final at the 18th Asian Games in Jakarta, Indonesia, Thursday, Aug. 23, 2018. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)

JAKARTA, Indonesia — Oksana Chusovitina continued her quest to compete at an eighth Olympics by winning a
silver medal in the vault at the Asian Games at the age of 43.

Chusovitina won the vault at the 2002 Asian Games in Busan, and in between took silver medals in the event at the 1994 and 2014 editions of the continental games.

The Uzbekistan veteran missed out by one-tenth of a point on a gold medal, which went to 16-year-old South Korean Yeo Seo-jeong with 14.387 points. Yeo was born 10 years after Chusovitina made her Olympic debut and won gold in the team event in ’92 in Barcelona.

At the other end of the spectrum, 15-year-old Shardul Vihan became India’s youngest medalist in shooting at the Asian Games when he took silver in the double trap final behind Shin Hyun-woo of South Korea.

Vihan attends high school in Meerut, where 16-year-old 10-meter pistol gold medalist Saurabh Chaudhary is from.

China continued to dominate the podium across co-host cities Jakarta and Palembang and its medal tally hit 100 — including 51 gold — halfway through the fifth day of competition.

That included golds in six of the day’s first eight rowing finals.