JAKARTA, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- Liu Xiang of China became the first woman breaking the 27-second barrier in the women's 50m backstroke for a world record here on Tuesday, pacing China to lead 11-10 over Japan in the swimming pool after the first three-day competitions at the Asian Games.
Liu, the Asian record holder in 50m freestyle, led the 50m backstroke from the start to the end, clocking a winning time of 26.98 second for the world record.
The previous world mark of 27.06 was set up by China's former world champion Zhao Jing in July 30, 2009, while the previous Asian Games record goes to Gao Chang of 27.48.
"It was like a dream. I did not expect to do that! In fact, it was not my favorite event," said Liu, who holds the Asian record of 24.04 seconds in 50m freestyle.
The 2015 world champion Fu Yuanhui took the silver medal in 27.68 and Sakai Natsumi of Japan placed third in 27.91.
Multiple world champion Sun Yang retained his title in the men's 400m freestyle in 3:42.92, which was close to his winning mark of 3:41.38 at the last World Championships in Budapest. Ehara Naito and Hagino Kosuke, both of Japan, stood behind Sun on the podium.
"I want to show that I'm still the No. 1 in the world. I swam six high-level competitions from 200, 400, 800 and relays within three days. It's the best reward for me and my coaches because we trained very hard this year," said Sun who completed a Golden Grand Slam from the Asian Games, the World Championships and the Olympic Games.
Sun has thus accumulated eight Asian Games gold medals, which equals former Chinese women freestyler Xu Yanwei, as the most successful swimmer at the Asian Games.
Yu Hexin made the splashes in the pool as he took the men's 50m freestyle gold medal in 22.11, beating Asian record holder Nakamura Katsumi of Japan to second in 22.20 and Nakao Shunichi third in 22.46.
Consisted of Li Bingjie, Wang Jianjiahe, Zhang Yuhan and Yang Junxuan, China won the women's 4x200m freestyle relayin a Games record of 7:48.61. Japan took the silver in 7:53.83 and Hong Kong, China had the bronze.
Ohashi Yui ruled the women's 400m individual medley in 4:34.58 while Koseki Yasuhiro and Watanabe Ippei gave Japan a one-two finish in the men's 200m breaststroke in 2:07.81 and 2:07.82 respectively. China's world youth record holder Qin Haiyang came to third in 2:08.07.
"That hurts. The last few meters were painful and my mind went blank. I was hanging on for dear life," said Yasuhiro who surged back in the last few meters to steal the gold from the pace setter Ippei.
Ikee Rikako sealed her fourth gold medal from the Games as she breezed in the women's 100m butterfly in a Games record of 56.30, beating China's Zhang Yufei to second 57.40.
