Chinese cross-country skier Wang Chunli completed a great performance for the hosts as she edged Yelena Kolomina of Kazakhstan to claim the victory of the women's sprint free at the Beidahu ski resort on Tuesday.

Wang Chunli (front) wins China's first-ever cross-country individual Asiad gold at the Beidahu ski resort on Tuesday. [xinhua]

The gold medal was the first cross-country individual title that China ever achieved in the 21-year-old Asian Winter Games history.

Wang, who crossed the finish line with Kolomina almost at the same time, was later confirmed as the winner through video replay.

Kolomina, vying against a Chinese trio in the final alone, hit top gear in the last few minutes, overtaking Hou Yuxia and Song Bo in a row before catching up with Wang.

But Wang was tough enough to beat off the strong comeback from Kolomina and held on to win by a slim advantage of 0.09 seconds.

"Today is the happiest day of my life. It is a tough win as I defeated some top athletes from Japan and Kazakhstan," a tearful Wang said after the match.

"It is my first individual gold medal I ever took in the Asian Winter Games, I am very very happy with the result after long time of toil on snow."

Wang Chunli (R) and her coach [sportsphoto.cn]

Per-Eric Ronnestrand, head coach of the Chinese cross-country team, pinned much Olympic hope on Wang.

"Wang is hard-working and strong-minded. If she keeps working in the next three years, she will possibly win the gold medal at the 2010 Olympic Games," said the German, who has a contract until the end of 2007 and hopes to renew it later.

"Now Wang is training in both biathlon and cross-country, I hope she can concentrate only on cross-country as she is very hopeful to produce bigger success in my sport."

In the men's sprint free, Yuichi Onda of Japan took the gold medal while Alexey Poltoranin and Yevgeniy Koshevoy, both of Kazakstan, finished second and third respectively.

In earlier competitions, Chinese athletes had a clean sweep of all medals in the women's biathlon 10km pursuit and a silver medal in snowboard men's halfpipe.

(Source: Chinaview.cn)