By Hiroki Noda,
Japanese swimmer Tomoru Honda won the men's 200-meter butterfly for his second gold medal of the Hangzhou Asian Games on Friday, while Rikako Ikee managed to claim bronze in the women's 50-meter butterfly won by Chinese star Zhang Yufei.
Reigning world champion Qin Haiyang completed a sweep of the three breaststroke titles with a convincing victory in the 50 meters as China collected four of the seven gold medals contested on the final day of the swimming program.
China finished with 28 gold medals out of 41 events in the pool, followed by South Korea's six, Japan's five and Hong Kong's two.
At the previous Asian Games in 2018 in Jakarta and Palembang, Indonesia, Japan matched China's 19 gold medals in the pool, with six won by Ikee, who was named the MVP of the meet.
Honda won in 1 minute, 53.15 seconds, 1.38 ahead of second-place Taiwanese Wang Kuan-hung and 2.89 ahead of third-place Chinese Chen Juner, at Hangzhou Olympic Sports Centre's Aquatic Sports Arena.
Honda took the early lead and was never challenged en route to adding to the 400 individual medley gold he won Tuesday.
"I was able to win my favorite event for the first time in an international meet," Honda said. "It was a nice finish for me and a good one step toward next year."
Honda said he swam the first 150 meters at an ideal pace but the last 50 was not good.
"I want to raise my level to be able to have an explosive last 50 in the 200."
In the women's 50 butterfly, Zhang powered home in 25.10 seconds, 0.61 ahead of compatriot Yu Yiting and 0.92 ahead of Ikee, for her sixth gold medal of the meet.
"I have mixed feelings," Ikee said. "I'm happy to have achieved my goal of taking home a medal (from an individual event), but at the same time being unable to go under 26.00 in the 50 was disappointing."
Asked to comment on her rival Zhang, Ikee said, "I'm sure she'll continue to get stronger. She makes me think I want to train harder. I want to catch up with her."
Zhang was the 200 butterfly winner at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.
Qin, the 50 breaststroke winner, said, "I was confident of getting the gold, so it was a chance for me to try new things."
The 24-year-old won the 50, 100 and 200 at the world aquatics championships in July in Fukuoka.
"I'm quite happy with the time, especially since I tried new things," Qin said. "I treated the Asian Games as a trial, as a place for me to prepare for the 2024 Paris Olympics."
Japan won the last event of the six-day swimming program, the women's 4x100 medley relay in 3 minutes, 57.67 seconds after the Chinese team was disqualified in its morning heat for a false start.
South Korea's Kim Woo Min cruised to victory in the men's 400 freestyle in 3:44.36.
In the day's other events won by Chinese swimmers, Xu Jiayu claimed the men's 200 backstroke gold in 1:55.37, and the women's 800 freestyle title went to Li Bingjie, who covered the distance in 8:20.01.
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