Golden firsts in Busan

China have amassed 71 gold medals

Malaysia,Vietnam and the Philippines all picked up their first gold medals at the Asian Games on Friday.

Vietnam were guaranteed gold after Tran Dinh Hoam and Duong Hoang Anh set up an all-Vietnamese final in the the carom free ball billiards.

Day five round-up

It was Hoam who claimed top spot on the podium after dispatching Anh 400-142.

Malaysia also ended its gold drought with victories in the women's doubles bowling and the men's squash.

But much-fancied Nicol David failed to clinch another gold for Malaysia in the final of the women's squash.

The defending champion lost out 9-7 9-5 9-7 to Hong Kong's Rebecca Chiu.

Rafael Nepomuceno and Rowen Jay Bautista bowled their way to the Philippines' first gold medal in the men's doubles.

The pair earnt a hard fought victory over Japanese duo Isao Yamamoto and Seiji Watanabe, 2714 points to 2670.

Gripping

China suffered a rare defeat in table tennis on day six of the Games.

North Korea's women stole a 3-1 victory over their Chinese counterparts in a gripping team final.

The Koreans edged the win after China's reigning Olympic and world singles champion Wang Nan lost both of her matches to a ferocious North Korean assault.

The Chinese were expected to dominate the table tennis events after they took six out of a possible seven gold medals at the 1998 Games.

In the weightlifting, Sergey Filimonov saw a world record fall after his success at 173kg.

Filimonov breaks a world record in the snatch

Both Filimonov of Kazakhstan and China's Li Hongli broke Bulgarian Plamen Zhelyazkov's world record in the snatch.

But it was Filimonov who claimed the gold medal after going on to lift a total of 375kg while Li crashed out after three failures in the clean and jerk.

A whiff of controversy surrounded the weightlifting arena on Friday when Nader Sulyan Abbas, a Bulgarian representing Qatar, pulled out just moments before the final.

It was not the first time the world champion has pulled out moments before an event.

He famously withdraw from the 2000 Sydney Olympics complaining of a "virus."

China's gold haul

China were responsible for smashing a second world record on day six.

Their women's 25m sport pistol team shattered a 13-year-old record set by the Soviet Union in 1989.

Tao Luna teamed up with Li Duihong and Chen Ying for a combined new world record total of 1768 points, four points better than the old mark.

Although China's runaway gold medal tally slowed somewhat they still added 13 more to their overall tally of 71.

With over a week of competition to go, China aims to surpass its Asian Games gold medal record of 183 set in Beijing 1990.

Meanwhile, South Korea and Japan continue to battle in the closer competition for second place.