Sun Yang of China attends the awarding ceremony after winning the gold medal of Men's 800m Freestyle Final in the 18th Asian Games in Jakarta, Indonesia, Aug. 20, 2018. (Xinhua/Fei Maohua)
Triple Olympic champion Sun Yang enjoyed a comfortable victory in the men's 800 meters freestyle in a Games record time while young talent Ikee Rikako bagged two individual titles for Japan at the Jakarta Asian Games in Jakarta on Monday.
China now tied with Japan tied 7-7 after two day's swimming competition at the Asian Games. Both teams shared three golds each in other six individual events as China won the men's event and Japan wrapped up victories in the women's side on Monday. Japan also had a narrow victory in the men's 4X200m freestyle relay.
Men's 800m free and women's 1500m freestyle are introduced to the Asian Games for the first time since both events added to the official swimming competitions in the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.
Sun, who just completed a Golden Grand Slam of Olympic, world and Asian titles in the 200, 400 and 1500m freestyle on Aug 19, took the lead since 350m and touched the wall in a time of seven minutes 48.36 seconds. Takeda Shogo of Japan and Nguyen Huy Hoang of Vietnam come to second and third.
"I saved energy for the 4X200m freestyle relay later tonight. My plan was to swim faster in the second half and to test my endurance in the race," Sun said.
Sun later anchored with Wang Shun, Ji Xinjie and Shang Keyuan in the relay, but lost to Japan by 0.28 seconds. Japan posted a game record 7:05.17 and China came to second at 7:05.45. Singapore finished third.
Wang Shun, who just came back to win the men's 200m individual medley in 1:56.52, beating defending champion Hagino Kosuke 1:56.75 with his strong freestyle finish. Qin Haiyang of China took the bronze in 1:57.09.
World champion Xu Jiayu also claimed his second title in men's 50m backstroke in 24.75 and Japanese veteran Irie Ryosoku took the silver in 24.88.
Japanese swimmers dominated the women's events as the 17-year-old star Ikee Rikako renewed two games record in the 50m butterfly 25.55 and 100m freestyle 53.27.
"I achieved what I came to do tonight so I'm delighted. The plan was to conserve energy in the first half of the race and come home strong -- and that's exactly what happened," Ikee said.
Defending champion Watanabe Kanako of Japan took the crown in the women's 200m breaststroke 2:23.05, while pace setter Yu Jingyao of China had to concede to a silver at 2:23.31 and Aoki Reona of Japan third in 2:23.33.
