Three Chinese and one Japanese athlete have made the shortlist for Samsung's Most Valuable Performance Award after the first week of competition at the Asian Games ended on Monday.
Japan's Kosuke Kitajima was nominated for his three gold medals in swimming, including breaking a decade-old world record in the 200-metres breaststroke. Joining him from the pool was Chinese prodigy Wu Peng, the 15-year-old triple gold medallist who won the 200m backstroke, 200m butterfly and set as Asian record in the 400m individual medley.
The world record breaker in the clean and jerk, Chinese strongman Le Maosheng who won the 62kg weightlifting event by beating his gold-medal-winning lift in the same event at the 1998 Bangkok Games, became the first repeat MVP candidate. Rounding out the preliminary list is 16-year-old quadruple gold medalist Zhang Nan of China, the heroine of the gymnastics event.
The selection committee comprises officials from the Olympic Council of Asia, Games organisers BAGOC, and journalists from two news agencies and two newspapers, one of which is the South China Morning Post. The criteria for selection includes factors such as setting an Asian Games or world record, winning multiple medals and repeating as gold medallists. More athletes will be added to the shortlist after the end of the second week of competition. All journalists covering the Games will then vote for the Samsung MVP. Voting will take place on the weekend. The winner will receive a golden trophy, US$20,000 for training expenses and Samsung digital products. The MVP award will be presented to the winner during the closing ceremony on Monday.
