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China set pool ablaze

China’s outright domination of the pool continued on day three of the Ninth Asian Swimming Championships here on Saturday night, with championship records and gold medals continually attained almost at will.

Having won 17 golds out of 20 over the first two days at the Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Sports Complex, the continental superpower made it 25 from 29 ahead of the fourth and final day on Sunday.

Zhao Jin (four), Chen Yin (three) and Sun Yang (three) have contributed 10 of that terrific tally following their excellent exploits on Saturday, with Cheng Feiyi, 13-year-old Xu Danlu, Lu Zhiwu and Sun himself all catching the eye with Championship Record-breaking victories.

The night’s action got underway in fitting style with Cheng (25.25s) breaking the Championship Record in the men’s 50m backstroke.

In the fifth new Championship Record set at this meeting, Cheng touched the wall first ahead of Japan’s Takeshi Kawamoto (25.82s) and his compatriot Xu Jiayu (25.89s).

In the women’s 100m butterfly, Lu Ying (58.92s) got the better of Sze Hang Yu (1:00.07s), of Hong Kong, and Japan’s Rino Hosoda (1:00.14s).

Chen (1:57.50s) duly registered his third gold at these championships with another sterling showing in the men’s 200m butterfly.

Having already tasted success in the 4x100m medley relay and 50m butterfly, Chen pipped Japan’s Masato Sakai (1:57.52s) by just two-hundredths of a second. Hsu Chi-Chieh (1:59.68s), of Taiwan, came home in third.

Xu then broke the second Championship Record of the night – and sixth overall – with 4:05.75s in the women’s 400m freestyle.

She finished well in front of countrywoman Shao Yiwen (2:10.88s) and Thailand’s Natthanan Junkrajang (2:14.59s) – a highly impressive achievement given her young age.

China’s dominance and their tendency to smash Championship Records continued in the men’s 100m freestyle, where Lu (49.27s) dipped under the previous benchmark once again. Toru Maruyama (50.82s), of Japan, and China’s Shi Tengfei (50.89s) followed Lu in for silver and bronze.

Zhao won her fourth gold of the meet with 1:09.27s in the women’s 100m breaststroke, edging out South Korea’s Back Su-Yeon (1:09.71s) and Misaki Sekiguchi (1:10.46s), of Japan, in the process.

With six wins from as many races, any hopes of a Chinese clean sweep on day three were eradicated in the seventh event – the men’s 200m backstroke – as Japan achieved a somewhat expected one-two given the qualifying times.

Kazuki Kohinata (2:12.13s) broke another Championship Record, meaning another Kazuki – Utsunomiya (2:14.68s) – had to be content with silver and Thailand’s Nuttapong Ketin (2:15.18s) bronze.

China (3:45.14s) got the better of Japan (3:48.26s) and Hong Kong (3:49.14s) in the women’s 4x100m freestyle relay before Sun (14:44.10s) achieved a heady hat-trick in the freestyle events – adding the 1,500m title to his earlier 200m and 400m successes. There was a remarkable dead heat for silver between China’s Hao Yun and Shogo Takeda, of Japan, who both finished in 15:16.22s.

Meanwhile, from the afternoon’s synchronised swimming session, China came away with two gold medals from the Solo Free Routine and Free Combination finals respectively.

They were pushed all the way by Japan though, with Sun Wenywan (93.110) only prevailing by 0.930 points from Japan’s Yumi Adachi (92.180) in the former category. Hyang Ji Ri (84.520), of North Korea, completed the podium picture.

In the latter discipline, China’s 10-strong team (93.900) emerged victorious by a more impressive 2.190 points. Japan (91.710) claimed silver and Kazakhstan (82.290) bronze.

alex@khaleejtimes.com

Sunday’s schedule


Swimming

• Heats: 9am-11am
• Finals: 6pm-8pm

Women’s 50m Breaststroke

Men’s 50m Freestyle

Women’s 200m Individual Medley

• First Ceremony Men’s 200m Individual Medley Women’s 200m Backstroke
• Second Ceremony Men’s 100m Backstroke Women’s 400m Medley Relay
• Third Ceremony Men’s 400m Freestyle Relay Women’s 800m Freestyle
• Fourth Ceremony

Synchronised Swimming

1:30pm-2pm: Team Free Final (3)

2:40pm-3:30pm: Duet Free Final (8)

3:45pm-4pm: Award Ceremony

Overview

Swimming: November 15^th-18^th

Synchronised Swimming: November 15^th-18^th

Diving: November 22^nd-25^th

Water Polo: November 19^th-25^th