Asian Games: Kobayashi picks up 4th ski gold at Asian Games

SAPPORO (Kyodo) -- Japan's Yuki Kobayashi won the women's 15-kilometer free mass start competition on Sunday for her fourth gold in cross-country skiing at the Sapporo Asian Winter Games.

Earlier in the week at Shirahatayama Open Stadium, Kobayashi struck gold in the 5-km classical, 10-km free and 4x5-km relay.

On the last day of the winter sports event run by the Olympic Council of Asia, Kobayashi clocked 43 minutes, 28.6 seconds in the race in which competitors start at the same time in a large group rather than at intervals. Lee Chae Won of South Korea came home 3.9 seconds behind Kobayashi for silver.

"I hope I was able to promote the sport by winning four gold," said Kobayashi.

"I decided halfway through the race that I was going to save my energy and skied rather slowly. I hope to use this as a stepping stone as I try and meet the qualifying standard for the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics (in February 2018)," she said.

China's Li Hongxue clinched the bronze with a time of 43:33.8, while Japan's Kozue Takizawa missed out on a podium spot, finishing fourth in 43:38.5.

Also representing Japan, Chisa Obayashi was fifth and Hikari Miyazaki was 13th.

In the men's 30-km free mass start, Akira Lenting captured his third gold medal this week following success in the 10-km classical and 4x7.5-km relay.

The Japanese skier pipped Kazakhstan's Sergey Cherepanov in a photo finish when the two dipped for the line after more than an hour and 20 minutes of racing. The pair finished with the same time (1:22:54.0) but Lenting with the glory.

"I was thinking I need to be among the top three when I entered the stadium and then I could pull away down the final stretch. It went pretty much as planned. I couldn't live up to my goal of winning four gold, but it was a good event," he said of the Feb. 19-26 Games.

In freestyle skiing, Ikuma Horishima and Arisa Murata won gold in the men's and women's moguls, respectively.

Horishima, who also won the dual moguls, earned a total score of 90.35, followed by Choi Jae Woo of South Korea (88.55) and Dimitriy Reikherd of Kazakhstan (85.69).

Murata collected 79.37 points for the top podium spot, Yuliya Galysheva of Kazakhstan (79.02) took silver and Miki Ito of Japan (75.52) third.

In biathlon, Japan's Kosuke Ozaki finished third in the men's 15-km mass start won by Yan Savitskiy of Kazakhstan in 44:12.2. China's Wang Wenqiang placed second in 44:54.1.

"My skis were flowing and I entered the race in good shape. We still have half the World Cup season left, so I hope to bring more good news to Japan biathlon," said Ozaki, who posted a time of 45:11.5.

Fuyuko Tachizaki also won bronze in the women's 12.5-km mass start, in which Galina Vishnevskaya led a Kazakhstan 1-2-3 finish by clocking 39:26.6.

Darya Ussanova had the third-fastest time, but fourth-place finisher Tachizaki was bumped up according to competition rules that prohibit one country from winning all three medals in a single event.

"This feels awkward," Tachizaki said after collecting her surprise bronze.