BUSAN, South Korea, Oct 5: Schoolboy sensation Wu Peng won his third gold of the week as China completed a 20-11 victory over Japan in the gold medal standings after the final day of the Asian Games swimming on Saturday.

Victory was sweet for China after finishing second best in 1998 and having eight of 23 swimming winners stripped of their gold medals after failed doping tests at the 1994 Games in Hiroshima.

China’s answer to Ian Thorpe, the 15-year-old Wu powered ahead in the final half a length on Saturday to add the men’s 200 backstroke gold to the 200 butterfly and 400 metres individual medley titles he won earlier this week at Sajik Pool in Pusan.

Wu, who inherited his 1.97-metre frame from his basketball-playing parents, clocked a personal best of 2:00.40 to touch out Japanese pair Takashi Nakano (2:00.76) and Naoya Sonoda (2:01.22).

Asked how he felt about being compared to Thorpe, Wu boasted: “Maybe I’m better than Thorpe because I can swim a number of different events and he just focuses on the freestyle. I prefer to be compared to (top U.S. prospect, Michael) Phelps.”

Meanwhile, rising star Xu Yanwei made it five out of five as she anchored the women’s 4x100 medley relay team to victory in the last event of the competition to cap a remarkable six days for China.

China, who lost out 15-13 to fierce rivals Japan in the gold medal count at the last Asian Games in 1998, led 16-11 coming into the final session and only needed to win one race out of five to exorcise the ghosts of Bangkok.

They did not have to wait long as Chen Hua took the first final of the evening, the women’s 800 freestyle, in an Asian record of eight minutes 25.36 seconds.

Japan’s Sachiko Yamada, who had beaten Chen in the 400 final, clocked 8:28.77 to take silver.

Xu, who had completed the 50 and 100 freestyle double and won two relay gold medals earlier this week, brought China home in another Asian record of 4:00.21 in the 4x100 medley relay, more than five seconds quicker than runners-up Japan.

There was more drama in between, however, as Qi Hui, world record holder in the 200 breaststroke, won her third gold of the Games, storming to victory in the 400 individual medley in a time of 4:40.37. Japan’s Maiko Fujino was runner-up in 4:43.49.

The 17-year-old Qi also won the 200 breaststroke and 200 individual medley titles and finished runner-up behind team mate Luo Xuejuan in the 100 breaststroke in a hugely successful week.

“I swam above myself this week. The Chinese men, too, have won about seven gold medals, which was better than expected. It shows the potential of Chinese swimming,” said Qi.

South Korea finally had something to cheer about as Kim Min-suk dead-heated with Ravil Nachaev of Uzbekistan in the men’s 50 freestyle, clocking 22.86 for a share of the gold medal, the first for the hosts in the Asian Games swimming.

“I was born and raised in Pusan, so I already felt enormous pressure to win a gold medal at the Asian Games. I trained so hard for this and feel it is a reward for 15 years of hard work,” said Kim, who had been in tears after winning.—Reuters