The 2011 Asian Winter Games is a multi sporting event that is currently being held in Astana and Almaty, Kazakhstan and that began on January 30, 2011 and will end on February 6, 2011. It is the first time that Kazakhstan has hosted such a large event since independence from the Soviet Union.
Hosts Kazakhstan underlined their supremacy on the closing day of the Asian Winter Games on Sunday by winning four more gold medals to finish top of the medals table.
Kazakhstan were comfortably the most successful country at the event, having collected 32 gold medals and 70 overall.
Second-placed Japan finished with 13 golds and 54 overall, while South Korea were third after also picking up 13 gold medals.
In one of the tournament's final events, South Korea's women set a new Asian record in the speed skating team pursuit after clocking a time of 3min 04.35sec to finish two seconds ahead of China. Japan were third.
There was also a new Asian record in the men's equivalent event, as Japan set a new mark of 3min 49.18sec, just five minutes after South Korea had lowered the record to 3:49.21. The hosts took bronze.
In the women's nordic skiing 15km mass start, Masako Ishida of Japan led from start to finish to claim gold.
Ishida immediately took charge of a lead group containing three Kazakh skiers and China's Li Hongxue, before the 30-year-old moved up a gear at the 10km mark to finish 45.8sec ahead of second-placed local skier Elena Kolomina.
In the men's 30km mass start, Keishin Yoshida of Japan took an early lead but was ultimately outstripped by Kazakh pair Alexey Poltoranin and Sergey Cherepanov, who finished first and second respectively.
Kazakhstan started the day with a win in the biathlon, clinching the gold medal in the men's 4x7.5km relay.
Kazakhstan grabbed the lead through Alexandr Chervyakov, who came to the first exchange 52.5sec ahead of his closest chaser, Japan's Junji Nagai, who experienced problems at the shooting range.
Nikolay Braichenko increased the hosts' lead at the second leg to send Yan Savitsky into the third stage with a lead of more than one minute.
Savitsky had to use additional cartridges at the second shooting range and was subsequently held up, but he nonetheless managed to increase his team's advantage to 1min 48sec.
Dias Keneshev, the Kazakhastan anchor, came to the finish alone with Kazakhstan's flag in his hands, 2min 18sec ahead of Japan's Satoru Abe, with China finishing third.
"I'm very disappointed with my performance today," said Nagai, who had to run a penalty lap after his first shooting attempt.
"I had some problems with my rifle. Besides, I saw Chervyakov had finished shooting and I tried to shoot faster. That was my mistake as the haste led me into a series of misses."
Kazakhstan's bandy squad enjoyed complete command against Mongolia in the final, winning it 16-2.
The hosts kept their opponents under pressure from the start, scoring seven unanswered goals under the gaze of the country's president, Nursultan Nazarbayev.
The Mongols replied with some rough tactics, provoking a mass brawl at the end of the first half.
After the interval the hosts continued to dominate on the ice of the famous Medeu rink, scoring nine more goals to seal the gold medal before Mongolia replied with a couple of consolation goals from the penalty spot.
Kazakhstan's ice hockey squad also added a gold medal to their team's tally, beating Japan 4-1 in the final match.
After a goalless first period the hosts went into a 2-0 lead through quick-fire goals from Yevgeny Blokhin and Ilya Solarev.
In the third period Maxim Semenov and Roman Starchenko also scored for the hosts, while Jun Tonosaki pulled one back for Japan.
South Korea, who out-gunned China 11-1 earlier on Sunday, took the bronze medal.
7th Winter Asian Games Final Medal Tally
COUNTRY Gold Silver Bronze Total
Kazakhstan 32 21 17 70
Japan 13 24 17 54
Korea 13 12 13 38
China 11 10 14 35
Mongolia 0 1 4 5
Iran 0 1 2 3
Kyrgyzstan 0 0 1 1
7th Asian Winter Games Astana-Almaty 2011
| Opening Ceremony | 30-Jan-2011 |
| Closing Ceremony | 06-Feb-2011 |
| Host City | Astana-Almaty |
| Country | Kazakhstan |
| Nations Participating | 26 |
| Events | 69 |
| Sports | 5 |
| Disciplines | 11 |
President Nursultan Nazarbayev. Astana Arena (Opening)
Baluan Sholak Sport and Culture Palace (Closing)
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