Kazakhstan men's and women's ice hockey teams advanced after easy wins at the sixth Asian Winter Games on Wednesday.

Kazakhstan and Japan, the top two ranked men's teams in Asia, both achieved victories in the first round of the top four round-robin competitions at the Winter Asiad.

Kazakhstan, ranked 11th in the world, beat China 17-1.

They opened the scoring only 29 seconds into the match and scored six times each in the first two periods.

China's Du Chao shot in the only goal for the host team at the beginning of the third period, but they failed to stop another five goals from their strong opponents, losing by 1-17.

In the other match, forward Yuka Hirano gave Japan the lead against South Korea with a goal at 14:16 in the first period. However, they did not secure the win until they scored twice with six minutes to go before a fight broke up between the two teams at 59:31.

In the women's tournament, Kazakhstan eased past South Korea 14-0 while Japan toppled top Asian team China 4-2 with two decisive goals with just seven minutes to go.

(Xinhua News Agency February 1, 2007)