Teenager Rikako Ikee spearheaded a golden night for Japan’s swimmers on Monday after the expulsion of four basketball players for using prostitutes rocked the Japanese team at the Asian Games.
Ikee, 18, won the women’s 100m freestyle and the 50m butterfly, Kanako Watanabe took women’s 200m breaststroke gold and Japan’s men beat Sun Yang’s China in the 4x200m freestyle relay.
Sun, China’s fearsome triple Olympic champion, won the Games’ inaugural 800m freestyle title but Japan still outshone their fierce Asian swimming rivals by four gold medals to three.
It provided a positive end to the day for Japan, who will host the next Olympics in 2020, after the four basketball players were caught paying for sex in a Jakarta red light district.
Yuya Nagayoshi, Takuya Hashimoto, Takuma Sato and Keita Imamura were spotted in the area wearing team jerseys and “paid for the services of prostitutes”, chef de mission Yasuhiro Yamashita said, according to Kyodo news agency.
“I just feel a sense of shame,” Japan’s chef de mission Yasuhiro Yamashita told reporters. “We deeply apologize and intend to give the athletes thorough guidance from now on.”
Sheikh Ahmad al-Fahad al-Sabah, president of the Olympic Council of Asia, the Games’ governing body, said the incident would serve as a warning to other athletes.
“At the end of the day, representing your country isn’t only about winning medals,” he said.