BANGKOK, Thailand Japanese sprinter Koji Ito, who won three gold medals and ran the first 10-flat 100 meters by an Asian, received the $100,000 Asian Games Most Valuable Performance award Sunday. Ito set his Asian record in the semifinals, won the 100 final in 10.05 after a slow start and added golds in the 200 and 4x100m relay. In a vote by reporters covering the games, ito finished ahead of Japanese marathon runner Naoko Takahashi, who missed a women's world record by just one minute, Japanese swimmer Shunsuke Ito, Thai boxer Samluck Khamsing, and Japanese swimmer Tomoko Hagiwara. The judges for the award added Olympic silver medalist Lee Bong-Ju of South Korea, who won the games' final event, the men's marathon, to the top six.

``I can't say exactly if will be able to get a 9 seconds record,'' Ito replied questions about possibly becoming the first Asian to break 10. ``Only god knows. But in the future I would like to do my best.'' The $100,000 from the South Korean company Samsung is not permitted to go directly to the athlete under International Olympic Committee rules.

But his National Olympic Committee is to use the money for his training. Ito said he also was thinking of arranging a gift from the money to a worthy cause in Thailand. Ito's favorite race actually has been the 200, which he won here in 20.25, a games record but slower than his Asian record of 20.16, set this year. In voting, reporters were not permitted to select athletes from their own country.

Of 1,510 valid votes, Ito received 481, Takahashi 220, Ito 149, Somluck 82 and Hagiwara 76. Ito and his 22-year-old identical twin brother, Shusuke, finished 1-2 in the men's 100-meter freestyle. The ``elder'' Ito also won gold in three relay events. Somluck, Thailand's first Olympic gold medalist in boxing, defending his featherweight Asian Games title here. Hagiwara won gold medals in two women's backstroke races and a relay.

(AP)