Sun shines as China wins men's 4x100m freestyle relay at Asiad
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E-mail Xinhua, September 24, 2014
Chinese male swimmers came from behind to win the men's 4x100m freestyle relay at the Asian Games with a new Asian record on Wednesday night at Munhak Park Tae-hwan Aquatic Center.
The Chinese foursome of Yu Hexin, Lin Yongqing, Sun Yang and Ning Zetao clocked three minutes 13.47 seconds to eclipse the previous Asian mark set by Japan in Hong Kong in 2009.
China was in second place behind Japan during the first half of the race, but as soon as Sun dived into the water China quickly took the lead and finished first place. Japan took the silver and the host nation, with Park Tae-hwan in the line-up, had to settle for the bronze.
"I am not good at charging, so the coaches let me swim the third leg," Sun explained afterwards.
Sun erased a 0.32 second deficit and set up a 0.05 second lead when China's fourth leg Ning Zetao started his swim. Ning, who had managed to post top three result this year, expanded the advantage and won by 0.91 seconds.
"This team enpowered me to stage a performance above my level," said Ning, who gave Sun a big hug immediately after the final.
The Chinese team is a mix of veterans and young blood. "With experiences from big events like these Games, we are expecting better performance in the future," Sun said.
China continued its golden run Wednesday night, bagging three more titles.
Shen Duo took her fourth gold by storming to victory in the women's 100 freestyle in one minute 57.66 seconds. Teammate Tang Yi came third behind Japan's Chihiro Igarashi.
"I'm not satisfied with my result despite the gold medal. It was 2 seconds slower than my expectation. Probably because there are some problems with the distribution of my strength," she said.
Fu Yuanhui bagged her second gold after taking the women's 100m backstroke in 59.95 seconds.
Olympic champion Jiao Liuyang outclassed London Olympic bronze medallist Natsumi Hoshi to snap up another gold for China in the 200m butterfly in 2:07.56.
Jiao said she would aim for the Rio Olympic Games in 2016 and hoped more youngers swimmers from China could catch up.
Japanese star swimmer Kosuke Hagino took gold in his specialty event - 400m individual medely in 4:07.75. His outstanding freestyle skills secured him the top spot after lagging behind in the first style.
Shock of the night came from Singapore boy Joseph Isaac Schooling who won his country's first gold medal in men's swimming since 1982.
He won the men's 100m butterfly with an Asian Games record time of 51.76 seconds.
"It's an honor to win the gold. I had not expected to do that. Tonight I gave everybody a shock. To tell the truth, as a freshman in university, I only train once every day, not that much. I hadn't been very well prepared for the Games," said Schooling.
Dmitriy Balandin of Kazakhstan showed his muscle in breaststroke events, taking the men's 100m breaststroke with 59.92 seconds, also a new Asian Games record.
This was his second gold after the 200m breaststroke Tuesday night.
So for in the medal tally, China leads with 15 golds. Japan follows with eight golds. Kazakhstan ranks third with two golds and Singapore fourth with one.
Host South Korea, lead by star swimmer Park Tae-hwa, only has four bronzes. Endit
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