Sun Yang of China reacts after men's 1500m freestyle final of swimming at the 18th Asian Games in Jakarta, Indonesia, Aug. 24, 2018. Sun won the gold medal. (Xinhua/Fei Maohua)
China continued their irrepressible march towards final medal table glory by winning 11 more golds, including three from swimming and two from gymnastics, at the 2018 Asian Games on Friday.
With a slice advantage of 0.04 seconds, China won the men's 4x100m medley relay, the last final of the six-day swimming competition in Jakarta, to tie arch-rival Japan 19-19 on the gold medal tally of the swimming competitions.
Singapore won the other two golds, while South Korea pocketed another one from the 41-gold bonanza in the pool.
The Chinese quartet, composed of three-time Asian backstroke champion Xu Jiayu, and teammates Yan Zibei, Li Zhuhao and Yu Hexin, beat pre-Games favorites Japan to take the relay title in a Games record of 3 minutes and 29.99 seconds.
Earlier, triple Olympic champion Sun Yang continued to dominate the mid-long distance freesytles as he claimed the men's 1,500m in 14:58.53.
"It's not easy for me to win the event for three consecutive Asian Games. I was rusty and exhausted after 4x100m freestyle relay. I even thought of quitting the event, but eventually I did my best as I could," said Sun in tears.
Sun swept all the gold medals from 200m, 400m, 800m and 1,500m freestyles and collected a pair of silvers from the freestyle relays in Jakarta.
The 16-year-old Wang Jianjiahe of China added the 400m freestyle title to her golden collection of 800m and 1,500m free as well as the 4x200m free relay, by storming home with a Games record of 4:03.18.
In the women's 50m freestyle showdown, Ikee Rikako of Japan beat Asian record holder Liu Xiang of China to take the crown in a Games record of 24.53 seconds.
Rikako has kept unbeaten in all her four individual events of 50m, 100m freestyles and 50m, 200m butterflies, all in Games record. Plus two relays, the 17-year-old Japanese thus becomes the first female swimmer to win six gold medals in one Games in the Asiad history.
The gymnastics competitions also came to an end as China won two more golds to top the medal tally with an impressive 18 medals.
Previously, China won six gold medals from men's and women's team and all-around events, as well as rings and uneven bars finals. In total, the Chinese gymnasts brought home eight gold, five silver and five bronze medals.
On Friday, Zou Jingyuan and Xiao Ruoteng wrapped up the gold and silver medals for China from the parallel bars final Chen Yile showed no signs of fatigue after winning two golds in the team and all-around events to claim her third gold medal from the beam final with 14.600 points.
In tennis, Wang Qiang defended the women's singles title after beating her Chinese compatriot Zhang Shuai.
The No. 2 seed enjoyed a rather easy victory, beating top seed Zhang 6-3, 6-2.
Elsewhere in the tennis courts, the 18-year-old Wu Yibing, boys' champion of last year's US Open, made men's singles final after edging past South Korea's Lee Duckhee 6-3, 3-6, 7-5.
China also collected golds from rowing, fencing and shooting.
Now the Asian sporting powerhouse is leading the medal table on 66 gold, 46 silver and 27 bronze medals, followed by Japan and South Korea with 29 and 23 golds respectively.
