Incheon: Japan’s Kosuke Hagino won his fourth swimming gold but China ruled the pool as they shot out to a big lead on the medals table at the Asian Games on Wednesday.
Hagino, 20, put in a strong final freestyle leg to add the 400 metres medley to his 200m medley, 200m freestyle and 4x200m freestyle titles in Incheon.
“That was hard work, I felt like I could be in a bit of bother,” Hagino told reporters. “I didn’t expect to feel that tired but I kept it together somehow. Obviously the freestyle [leg] did bail me out.”
But the night belonged as much to China, who rounded off another dominant day of competition with four swimming golds including the women’s 200m freestyle and butterfly.
Shen Duo won the freestyle race, Jiao Liuyang topped the butterfly and Fu Yuanhui took the 100m backstroke before China’s men combined for a 4x100m freestyle win over Japan.
It left China on 57 gold medals near the end of day five, well ahead of South Korea on 26 and on their way to topping the table for the ninth straight Asian Games.
China scooped up five out of seven golds in their home-grown martial art of wushu and another five from seven as the rowing competition got under way.
Weightlifters Xiang Yanmei and Tian Tao both grabbed gold, and Olympic superstar Zou Kai ended China’s wait for a men’s gymnastics gold with a world-class floor routine.
Meanwhile, Narantuya Chuluunbadrakh became the first Mongolian to win an Asian Games shooting gold medal when she clinched the women’s 50m rifle prone title.
The 29-year-old from Ulaanbaatar finished the final with 624.1 points, just four off the world record of 628 set by German Beate Gauss at the recent world championships.
“Our previous best was a team silver four years ago, so this is really, really special,” Chuluunbadrakh told AFP. “More so, since this is also my best score.”
Japanese cyclists Seiichiro Nakagawa and Tomoyuki Kawabata took gold and silver in the men’s individual sprint. There was a rare success for Singapore when Joseph Schooling won its first men’s swimming gold since 1982 with a Games record 51.76 seconds in the 100m butterfly.
“I’ve just enrolled as a freshman at the University of Texas,” he said. “I’m just happy to be sitting here. I’ve only been training one day, for the last four weeks. I’ve not really been doing much to be honest. It’s a huge step.”
