JAKARTA: The Thai women's volleyball team ended their best-ever Asian Games campaign with a silver medal on Saturday, as powerful China proved too much in the final match.
China prevailed 3-0 (25-19, 25-17, 25-13) in a match that took just 1 hour and 14 minutes to complete. It was their eighth Asian Games volleyball gold.
Earlier, South Korea defeated Japan 3-1 (25-18, 21-25, 25-15, 27-25) to take the bronze medal. Thailand had defeated the Koreans, who were the defending champions, the day before to make their first Asian Games final. Thailand won bronze in Incheon in 2014.
Thailand went into Saturday’s events in Jakarta with 11 gold medals, good for 12th place in the 37-country field, plus 14 silver and 46 bronze medals.
Elsewhere, China dashed the hopes of Unified Korea for an emotional women's basketball gold medal when they won a tense final 71-65 on Saturday.
China pulled away from 38-38 at half-time before holding off the Koreans in the final quarter.
"I feel we didn't have enough time to practise together," said Lim Yung-hui, the game's top scorer with 24 points. "We could have got a gold medal … we tried our best."
