China won four more swimming gold medals at the Asian Games on Monday, as Japan was left without a single gold in the pool after 14 events over the first two days.
In seven events contested on Day 2, Japan managed only three bronze medals at Hangzhou Olympic Sports Centre's Aquatic Sports Arena -- Ryosuke Irie in the men's 50-meter backstroke, Miki Takahashi in the women's 50 back and the men's 4x200 freestyle relay.
Qin Haiyang, the men's 200-meter breaststroke world record holder, won the 100 meters in 57.76 seconds, 1.33 ahead of Chinese compatriot Yan Zibei.
South Korea's Choi Dong Yeol placed third in 59.28, while Japan's Ippei Watanabe finished fifth in 1 minute, 1.36 seconds.
Qin led from the start to win his first gold in this eastern Chinese city, just two months after he became the first swimmer to complete a sweep of the three breaststroke events in a single edition of the world championships.
China won the first two finals of the day to extend its gold-winning streak to nine events from the opening day before South Korea's Ji Yuchan finally became the first non-Chinese winner of the Hangzhou program with his 50 freestyle victory in 21.72 seconds.
Hong Kong's Siobhan Bernadette Haughey won the next event, the women's 200 free, in 1:54.12.
"It's very special," Haughey said after winning Hong Kong's first-ever gold medal in swimming at an Asian Games. "I guess I was hoping for a little faster time, but it's not too far off my best time, so I'm still happy with it."
Double Tokyo Olympic individual medley champion Yui Ohashi, struggling with conditioning issues, finished sixth in the women's 200 IM, won by China's Yu Yiting.
In the day's last event, South Korea won the men's 4x200 freestyle relay with a new Asian record of 7:01.73, defeating China by 1.67. Japan finished third, 4.56 behind the winner.
At the previous Asian Games in 2018 in Jakarta and Palembang, Japan matched China's 19 gold medals in the pool, with six won by games MVP Rikako Ikee.
"It's been a very tough meet for Japan," long-time Japanese backstroke ace Irie said. "It looks like a great era has come for Chinese swimming."
"We've been frustrated to see our rival China do so well at the world championships and dominate the Asian Games here. This is a meet where we can't be congratulated for getting silver. We have to return to a team that can win golds at this meet.
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