Bong-Ju clinches Games' last gold

EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE

Bangkok, Dec 20: South Korea's Lee Bong-Ju, who shot into prominence with a brilliant performance at the Rotterdam Marathon -- in which he clocked 2:07.44 -- this April, re-established his position as Asia's premier marathon runner. He won the men's marathon in 2:12:32 for the last gold medal of the Asian Games on Sunday. And immediately, the 28-year-old Korean, who had won the silver medal at the Atlanta Olympics, announced is intention of going one better at the Sydney Games.

Akira Manai of Japan, who gave Lee a hard chase for the first 30 km, finished second in 2:13.25 and North Korea's Kim Jung-won took the bronze in 2:16.30. Lee was ahead for most of the time, but he shook of his chasers with about 12 km to go on a hot and humid morning.

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