CHINA captured gold in the women’s individual recurve competition at the 18th Asian Games yesterday, the country’s first ever win in this category since archery was included in the Asiad in 1978.

China’s 23-year-old Zhang Xinyan defeated Indonesia’s Diananda Choirunisa 7-3 after brushing aside South Korea’s world No. 5 Kang Chae-young in the semifinal.

This is Zhang’s second medal in this year’s Asiad after winning the bronze in mixed team recurve Monday.

Meanwhile, Jonatan Christie of Indonesia beat Chinese Taipei’s Chou Tien-chen 21-18, 20-22, 21-15 to secure the badminton men’s singles gold medal.

The 21-year-old Christie, nicknamed Jojo, grabbed national attention with his shirt-shedding celebration following his semifinal win over Japan’s Kenta Nishimoto, and intensified it with his pressure-packed win in the final.

“This win is historic for Indonesian badminton,” he said.

Badminton is the national sport in Indonesia, although it hasn’t won the men’s singles title at the Asian Games since Taufik Hidayat won back-to-back golds in 2002 and 2006. China’s Lin Dan won both in between.

The hosts picked up another badminton gold in the men’s doubles — it was an all-Indonesian final — after top-ranked Tai Tzu-ying of Chinese Taipei beat India’s Olympic and world championship silver medalist and millionaire Pusarla Venkata Sindhu 21-13, 21-16 in 36 minutes for the women’s singles final.

Top-ranked Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo had to save a match point before beating Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Rian Ardianto 13-21, 21-18, 24-22 in the men’s doubles.

The Jiang twins from China, Jiang Wenwen and Jiang Tingting, created history by winning the duet in artistic swimming, returning to the Asian Games after extended breaks to have children.

Both had baby daughters and spent two years away from the sport before deciding in 2016 to make a comeback.

“This is a very significant medal because it means so much to us and our families,” Jiang Wenwen said. “I think our performance demonstrated that mothers can do anything in sport and this will be a very good example for our children.”

The 32-year-old siblings, gold medalists in 2006 and 2010 and the oldest artistic swimmers to compete at the Asian Games, topped the technical and free routines to win with 186.5101 points, more than four clear of Yukiko Inui and Megumu Yoshida who took silver for Japan.(SD-Xinhua)