THE SIDELINES : China Reaps Gold Medal Haul

China marked its National Day today by smashing Asian Games records in the shot put and discus, winning a long walk and bicycle race, and adding gold medals in Chinese specialties like table tennis and wushu.

With five days of competition remaining, China already was close to winning gold in half of the Games’ 308 events. It had 139, to 33 for Japan, 30 for South Korea and 11 for North Korea.

Japan won three judo gold medals and one in track, while South Korea took one each in weightlifting and table tennis on Communist China’s 41st anniversary.

But China had 13 golds for the day--five in track and field, three in table tennis, and one each in women’s individual foil fencing, cycling, judo, weightlifting and the Chinese martial art of wushu.

Women shot putters Sui Xinmei and Huang Zhihong of China outclassed their competitors and smashed the Games record. Sui won with a toss of 67 feet, 5 inches and Huang was second at 67-1 1/2. The old record of 58-3 1/2 was set by China’s Li Meisu in 1982.

Zhang Jinglong hurled the discus 200 feet, 9 inches, erasing another 8-year-old record.