Hosts China beat reigning champions Japan to the top of the final medal tally in a clean sixth Asian Winter Games without any positive doping cases so far after all competitions concluded on Saturday.

"The doping control here is done in accordance with OCA rule and in consistence of WADA and IOC's anti-doping regulations. We are happy to say that all the results returned to us are negative, " said Dr. Jegathesan Manikavasagam, an OCA medical official.

"We plan to do about 200 tests both out of competition and during the Games. By far, we have conducted 156," he said, adding all the samples would be sent to the doping-control lab in Beijing authorized by the World Anti-Doping Agency.

Of the day's first three gold medals at stake in Jilin, the venue for all snow sports, Kazakhstan completed their perfect run on Saturday as they won the women's 4X5km and the men's 4X10km relays, the last two gold medals on offer in the cross-country skiing.

The Kazakhs also won both the women's 5km classical and the men's 30km freestyles on Wednesday to reap four out of the six, with the other two titles gone to Chinese veteran Wang Chunli in the women's sprint free and Japanese Yuichi Onda in the men's sprint free.

"In Asia, China and Japan are our main opponents, but I believe Kazakhstan are the favorites to win the trophy in the competitions on Asian level," said Shelgay Tishkov, coach of the Kazakhstan cross country team.

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

"The Chinese are moving forward step by step, and we will beat Kazakhstan four years later in their country," he added. The 7th Asian Winter Games will be held in Almaty, Kazakhstan in 2011.

In the Apline skiing, Japan easily defended their top position by sweeping all four gold medals after Yasuhiro Ikuta collected his second personal title, winning the men's slalom on Saturday in one minute and 47.92 seconds, 0.62 seconds ahead of silver medallist Kang Min-Heuk of South Korea.

"We are strong in Alpine skiing in Asia, and I am contented with the results we achieved here," said Kitamura Takeshi, manager of the Japanese Alpine skiing team, "but we have a long way to go to catch up with the top of the world."

Ikuta's teammate Masashi Hanada finished third in 1:48.85.

In the ice hockey tournament of the Games, Japan came from behind to beat China 3-1 on Saturday for a clean sheet in all five matches to defend their men's title while Kazakhstan also had their revenge, beating Japan 2-1 in their final match to keep the women's gold.

"I told my players our target was nothing but to win the gold medal before we came here," said Toshiyuki Sakai, coach of the Japanese men's team, "I was really satisfied with our performance in the match against Kazakhstan. That was the key victory (3-2 on Thursday)."

Kazakhstan won over South Korea 8-1 to lock the men's silver medal, followed by South Korea and China.

In the women's round-robin tournament, Japan missed the chance to triumph in the Winter Asiad for the first time after losing to Kazakhstan 2-1 on Saturday.

"It was a pity that we produced several chances in the third period but failed to score," said Kohichi Satoh, head coach of Japan's women team.

Kazakhs, the reigning champions and the second-ranked in Asia took an early lead by two goals in the first period and resisted fierce attacks from Japan in the third period to secure the title.

"The Japanese are stronger than we met last time," said Sergey Solovyev, head coach of Kazakhstan, referring to the clash last October when the Kazakhs suffered a loss. "I would say that we won by luck today."

Top-ranked women's Asian team of China beat DPR Korea 6-3 for the bronze medal.

In the last three finals of the Games, China reaped two golds from the figure skating in the men's single and pairs, with the other gone to Japan in the ice dancing.

Japanese veterans Nozomi Watanabe, 36 and Akiyuki Kido, 32, beat three Chinese combinations for a winning total of 151.93 points in the ice dancing after their runner-up finish in the last Games in Aomori, Japan, 2003.

Winter Asiad debutants Huang Xintong and Zheng Xun, all at their 20s, finished second in 150.06, ahead of fellow Chinese Yu Xiaoyang and Wang Chen who settled for the bronze in 138.36.

Earlier, World University Games bronze medalist Xu Ming, 25, awarded China the men's singles crown by leading both short program and free skate for a total of 194.19 points.

Compatriot Li Chengjiang retained his silver medal with 184.20, and Kensuke Nakaniwa of Japan took the bronze in 179.13.

Former world champions and Olympic medalists Shen Xue, 28 and Zhao Hongbo, 34 ensured a happy ending for the hosts by winning the pairs title for the fourth time in their probably last Asian Winter Games.

The pair, who had two world titles in 2002 and 2003, and two bronzes from the previous Olympics in Salt Lake City and Turin, collected 126.06 points from the free skate, winning the title in a total of 195.55.

Last year's world champions Pang Qing and Tong Jian finished second in 181.47, ahead of Li Jiaqi and Xu Jiankun, third in 144.20.

However, new regulations of the Games, which prevent a clean sweep of medals for any team, also pushed Uzbekistan to the medal podium for the first time with a shared bronze medal as Marina Aganina and Artyom Knyazev scored the closest of 126.20 against the top three.

Of all the 47 gold medals on offer in the Games, China had a huge collection of 19 golds, 19 silvers and 23 bronzes, Japan stood in a distant second with a 13-9-14 sheet, South Korea ranked third (9-13-11), ahead of Kazakhstan (6-6-6). Both Uzbekistan and Mongolia had one bronze medal apiece by the merit of the new regulations.

Source: Xinhua