NUMBER ONE: The Japanese softball team celebrates victory after stunning three-time world champions the United States 3-1 to clinch gold on August 21

A total of 19 countries and regions of Asia competed at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, winning 86 gold, 54 silver and 72 bronze medals. Their gold medal haul accounted for 28.5 percent of the total 302 gold medals awarded.

Of the Asian medal winners, China, Japan and South Korea were the top three accounting for 73 gold medals, and 84.9 percent of all medals won by Asian countries.

The top three have traditionally been strong in sports, competing with each other in the Asian sporting arena. At this Olympics however, China outdid the competition, leaving them fighting for the second place in Asia.

South Korea sent 267 athletes to the Beijing Olympics to compete in 25 sports, winning an unprecedented 13 gold medals (one more than that in the Seoul Olympics in 1988), and placing them above Japan.

Taekwondo has been a steady source of gold medals for South Korea since it was officially admitted to the Olympic Games in 2000, and it claimed four gold medals in Beijing.

Archery is another field that has been dominated by Koreans since it was officially included in Olympics in 1972. At the Beijing Games, Korean athletes took both the men's and women's team gold medals, achieving the third successive Olympic victory for the men's team and a sixth successive victory for the women's team.

South Korea also won two gold medals in weightlifting and one in baseball.

The country's hottest sports star, Park Tae-hwan won the gold medal in the men's 400 meters freestyle, the first Olympic swimming gold medal in history for Korea. He also won a silver medal for men's 200 meters freestyle.

The other three gold medals of the country were obtained in shooting, judo and badminton.

At the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, Japan made a record-breaking of 16 gold medals to surpass South Korea for the first time since 1988 and took the second place in Asia after China. In Beijing, Japan dispatched an unprecedented delegation of 576 people with the goal of winning at least 10 gold medals and more than 30 medals in total.

Before the Games, Japan had aimed at gold medals in judo, wrestling, swimming, gymnastics and track and field events. The country gained nothing in gymnastics or track and field events and under-performed in other events too. The final result for Japan was nine gold medals, six silver medals and 10 bronze medals, which ranked it eighth on the medal chart.

Judo used to be a big source for gold medals for Japan, but its judo team encountered very strong competitors and only took home four medals, two less than expected. Japan won two gold medals in wrestling at the Beijing Games, equaling that of the Athens Games in 2004.

Japanese swimming star Kosuke Kitajima successfully defended his Olympic crown with a new world record of 58.91 seconds in the men's 100 meters breaststroke at the Beijing Olympic Games on August 11. Later he set a world record in the men's 200 meters breaststroke on August 14.

Japan won nothing in track and field events, but its women's softball and football teams had more success. The softball team beat the United States, who were defending champions, to win the country's first gold medal in this event. The football team beat China in the quarterfinal match.

Japanese women's football team had demonstrated their strength to beat down the stronger Chinese team, and step into the world first-class football club.