Kazakhstan dominated the Asian Winter Games cross country tournament as they grabbed four out of six gold medals in the sport.

Kazakhstan completed a perfect run of form on Saturday as they won the women's 4X5km relay and the men's 4X10km relay.

The Kazaks also claimed the women's 5km classical and the men's 30km freestyle titles on Wednesday.

Chinese veteran Wang Chunli took the women's sprint free title while Japanese Yuichi Onda won the men's sprint free.

"My team did a good job and fulfilled the aims we'd planned, I am satisfied with the results," said Shelgay Tishkov, coach of the Kazakhstan cross country team.

"In Asia, China and Japan are our main opponents, but I believe Kazakhstan is the favorite to win the trophy in the competitions on Asian level," he added.

The 7th Asian Winter Games will be held at Almaty, Kazakhstan, and the central Asian country is also in a bid to host the 2014 winter Olympics.

Wang Chunli made a breakthrough for China as she edged Yelena Kolomina of Kazakhstan to claim the first-ever cross country individual victory at the women's sprint free on Tuesday.

"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 Per-Eric Ronnestrand, head coach of the Chinese cross country team.

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.

"Kazakhstan is a strong team, who have been in the skiing World Cup circuit for about six years, while we started the World Cup only last year, so it is already a big success to become the number two after beating Japan," said Per-Eric Ronnestrand.

"The Chinese team are moving forward step by step, and we will beat Kazakhstan four years later in their country."

"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."

Source: Xinhua