Malaysia, Thailand, Taiwan, Hong Kong take spotlight

<br>BUSAN, South Korea (AP) _ Malaysian bowlers gave their nation its first gold medal of the Asian Games, and a Thai equestrian and Taiwan cyclist rode to victory Friday. <br><br>Hong Kong's Rebecca

Friday, October 4th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

BUSAN, South Korea (AP) _ Malaysian bowlers gave their nation its first gold medal of the Asian Games, and a Thai equestrian and Taiwan cyclist rode to victory Friday.

Hong Kong's Rebecca Chiu, meanwhile, upset Asian champion Nicol David of Malaysia in the gold medal match in women's squash.

Their triumphs stole attention briefly from China, whose 62 gold medals put it halfway toward its overall games target with 10 full days of competition left.

Early Friday, China had three golds from shooting and one from cycling. More were expected later in gymnastics, swimming, table tennis, fencing and weightlifting.

The golds for Thailand, Taiwan and Hong Kong were their second.

Japan had 22 golds, including the team title from the equestrian three-day event, where Thailand's Pongsiree Bunluewong won the individual championship on a horse named ``Mr. A.'' It also won in men's beach volleyball.

South Korea improved its total to 16 golds with a victory in shooting.

Malaysia's Wendy Chai rolled a final game of 246 and teammate Sarah Yap had 212, giving them a 2,589 to 2,558 winning margin over South Koreans Cha Mi-jung and Kim Soo-kyung in women's doubles bowling.

Malaysia also had hoped for gold from David, who beat Chiu for the Asian championship in May. This time, Chiu won 9-7, 9-5, 9-7.

In cycling, Taiwan's Lin Chih-hsan won the men's 1-kilometer time trial by less than 0.4 seconds over Japan's Keiichi Omori.

China's Jiang Yonghua won the women's race 0.7 ahead of Japan's Sayuri Osuga.

Thai rider Pongsiree finished the three-day event with a total of 51.17 points for dressage, cross-country and show jumping. The lowest score wins. South Korea's Cheon Sang-yong on ``Mr. Smart'' took silver with 54.65.

Japan won the team title with 176.13 to 189.87 for South Korea and 224.08 for India.

It took the men's beach volleyball gold when Katsuhiro Shiratori and Satoshi Watanabe beat Indonesians Agus Salim and Koko Darkuncoro 29-27, 21-17.

After winning 13 of 14 shooting golds decided Wednesday and Thursday, China's shooters added three more Friday in the women's individual and team 25-meter pistol event and the men's team running target competition.

Kazakstan's Olga Dovgun won the women's individual 50-meter prone rifle event, 597 to 596 over South Korea's Lee Mi-kyung.

It was Kazakstan's fifth gold of the games.

Lee helped South Korea win the team gold with 1,778, a score matched by China, which took the silver medal after a countback. Kazakstan took the bronze with 1,772.