The host country, China, dominated the proceedings by winning the most gold medals and having the highest overall total. Chinese athletes won 29 of the 41 events, and won all of the women's competitions except two sprinting events, with a total of 62 medals. Japan was second with a total of 29 medals, while South Korea was the third-most successful nation with 12 medals. All the countries at the Games won at least one medal in the athletics competition, with the sole exception of Macau.
A number of athletes went on to further success at the 1994 Asian Games: among the men's East Asian Games gold medallists, Lee Jin-Il, Shunji Karube, Takahisa Yoshida, Bi Zhong and Zhang Lianbiao also became the Asian champion in their event. On the women's side, Wang Huei-Chen, Qu Yunxia and Min Chunfeng went on to add the 1994 Asian gold to their East Asian titles.[3]