Yuki Kurihara storms to Puyo Puyo title aged 11.
Eel-loving schoolboy Yuki Kurihara, 11, won an Asian Games gold medal in Japan on Saturday, more weightlifting world records were set and organizers said they were “not satisfied” with ticket sales after swaths of empty seats were seen at the athletics.
Kurihara, believed to be the youngest competitor at the Games in Aichi-Nagoya, romped to a 10-2 victory in the esports game Puyo Puyo Champions after going 1-0 down in the final.
The Games said fewer than 60% of tickets had been snapped up for eight sports, including football, as well as the showpiece closing ceremony.
“We are not satisfied,” Satoshi Murate, secretary-general of the Games organizing committee, said in response to a question from AFP about spectator numbers.
Six more world records were set in weightlifting, taking the Games total to 15 in four days, as North Korea’s Ri Won Ju won the men’s 70kg for his country’s fifth gold in eight events so far.
In the men’s 75kg, Indonesia’s Rahmat Erawan Abdullah won a second consecutive Asian Games gold after setting world records in the clean and jerk and total.
Abdullah won Olympic bronze in Tokyo and Asian Games gold in Hangzhou three years ago, both at 73kg.
Bahrain’s Nelly Korir broke the Asian Games record to win the women’s 1,500m in 4:04.50.
In the women’s marathon, Bahrain’s Shitaye Habte won an Asian Games gold, 16 years after taking silver in the 10,000m at the Guangzhou Games.