China sinks Japan to take swimming title

China sinks Japan to take swimming title

Martin Parry, Agence France-Presse, Busan, South Korea

China dethroned Japan as Asia's number one swimming nation
Saturday, winning the Asiad duel in the pool with Xu Yanwei
taking her fifth gold of the Games and Qi Hui and Wu Peng their
third.

The comprehensive 20-11 victory in the gold medal standings
was sweet revenge after Japan pipped them 15-13 in Bangkok at the
last Asiad four years ago.

China claimed its prize by winning four of the five gold
medals up for grabs on the last day of the six-day competition
Saturday.

Defending 800m freestyle champion Chen Hua handed China the
sought-after distinction of Asia's top swimming nation by beating
Sachiko Yamada, her conqueror over 400m.

Chen, beaten by Yamada at this meeting for the first time at
an international event, dug deep to down her rival, pulling clear
after 400m to touch in a new Asian and Asiad record time of
8:25.36.

Yamada, one of the few swimmers to wear a full length bodysuit
here, settled for silver with China's Zhang Yan taking bronze.

It wasn't just Chen and China celebrating.

A dramatic tie for first place in the men's 50m freestyle dash
between South Korea's Kim Min-Suk and Ravil Nachaev of Uzbekistan
finally broke the stranglehold held over the Asiad swimming by
China and Japan.

The pair hit the wall in 22.86 to the jubilation of an
ecstatic Korean crowd. Japan's Issei Nakanishi took bronze.

Xu meanwhile made it five firsts to become the most successful
athlete at the Games so far.

She added the 4x100m medley relay gold to the ones already
bagged in the 4x100m and 4x200m freestyle relays and the 50m and
100m free.

Xu anchored the relay team Saturday to inflict more misery on
Japan with a new Asian and Asiad record time of 4:00.21.

Japan took silver in 4:05.75 and South Korea the bronze in
4:23.41.

Qi was the most prolific female swimmer in solo events,
seizing three golds and one silver in total.

The 17-year-old army recruit, without goggles, won the 400m
individual medley in 4:40.37 to add to her 200m medley and 200m
breaststroke titles.

Such is her power and dominance in the breaststroke leg that
she turned a two second deficit behind teammate Zhou Ya Fei after
200m into a four second lead after 300m.

Zhou eventually finished third behind Maiko Fujino of Japan.

Wu, just 15 and unheard of before the Asian Games, also took
three gold, once again upsetting more established opponents, this
time in the 200m backstroke.

He clawed back in the last 25m to touch in 2:00.40 and add to
his 400m medley and 200m butterfly titles. The fancied Takashi
Nakano of Japan took silver and Naoya Sonodo of Japan the bronze.