China's Premier Li, thousands of spectators, athletes close 19th Asiad

Hundreds of dancers wearing glittery outfits and waving lights skipped, shimmied and jigged around, among and occasionally with the athletes. Many stood in a large circle facing spectators and waving their lights like cheerleaders.

Taking place amid tight security, the ceremony is planned to showcase some of the highlights from the more than two weeks of competition and to signal a handover to the hosts of the next Asian Games in 2026, the Japanese city of Nagoya.

The mayor of the next city to host a Games traditionally attends such closing ceremonies.

But Nagoya mayor Takashi Kawamura was not expected in Hangzhou due to comments he made over a decade ago denying that Japanese troops inflicted a wartime massacre on the Chinese city of Nanjing, Japanese outlet Mainichi reported.

China topped the medals table for an 11th successive Games, taking an artistic swimming title on the final day and the hosts' 201st gold left them two better than their previous best of 199 at the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games.

Organisers said 12,407 athletes from 45 nations competed in 40 sports at the games which had been delayed for a year due to Covid-19.

Earlier in the day, Taiwan and Japan won the last gold medals in karate.

In the men's team kata karate competition, Japan edged Macau in the final to take gold while Taiwan's Gu Shiau-shuang, 26 defeated Kazakhstan's Moldir Zhangbyrbay, 26, to defend the women's 50 kg kumite title she won in Jakarta in 2018.

This gave Taiwan 19 gold medals for the Games equalling their best ever gold haul achieved at the Bangkok Games in 1998.

Reuters