Asian Games: Yunnan athletes bag gold and silver medals in bike race

On the third day of 2018 Asian Games held in Jakarta, Ma Hao and Lv Xianjing from the Chinese team did not give any chances to other competitors in the men’s cross-country mountain bike racing, and took the first and second place with 1:34:58 and 1:36:02 respectively.

Ma and Lv were the only two Chinese participants in the sport during this Asian Games. Since both of them are from southwest China’s Yunnan province, the gold medal Ma Hao won was also the first for Yunnan athletes in the Games.

During the race, all contestants should finish seven laps. Ma took the first place in the forth lap and a racer of Kazakhstan was neck-and-neck with him. Lv kept calm and tried to get clear of the other riders to grab the third spot during the first half of the event. In the sixth lap, they two were well ahead of their closest challengers, and crossed the finishing line finally.

After the competition, Ma and Lv said they were “on cloud nine”. They are expected to bring more pleasant surprises. 

Trans-editing by Han Chengyuan and Zu Hongbing