MACAU, Nov 2: Two-times world champion Luo Xuejang powered to victory in the East Asian Games women’s 50m breaststroke on Wednesday as China threw down the gauntlet to Asian swimming power Japan ahead of the Beijing Olympics.

Luo, Olympic champion in the 100m breaststroke, was expected to win her race and did so with apparent ease, touching home three metres ahead of Japan’s Sayaka Nakamura in a Games-record 31.67 seconds.

But in a possible sign of things to come, Li Jie managed to hold off Athens bronze-medallist Yuko Nakanishi in a close finish to the women’s 200m butterfly.

Jie timed her swim to perfection, taking a big lead at the final turn and finishing in 2:10.26 to Nakanishi’s 2:10.39.

China, bidding to top the medals table in Beijing, has traditionally lagged behind Japan in swimming events and has pledged to improve its performance in the pool.

Chinese swimmers won six of the Games’ eight opening swimming events, with Zeng Qiliang taking the men’s 100m breaststroke ahead of Japan’s Genki Imamura.

Pang Jia-ying led a Chinese one-two in the women’s 100m freestyle and China also took the men’s 4x200 medley in 7:22.83 from South Korea.

In an enthralling 1,500m freestyle, China’s Zhang Lin pipped Park Tae-hwan by inches after the two had been neck-and-neck for most of the race, which finished in 15:00.27. The South Korean was just five-hundredths of a second behind.

For Japan, Aya Terakawa and Takami Igarashi shared gold with an identical 2:12.15 in the women’s 200m backstroke and Yuta Shoji beat team-mate Hidemasa Sano in the men’s 200m individual medley.

Japan, which like China is concentrating on grooming younger athletes here, left most of its top swimmers at home with Nakanishi a rare exception.

—AFP