Kitajima sets world mark

Kitajima celebrates his new world record

Japanese swimmer Kosuke Kitajima has broken the 10-year-old 200m world breaststroke record at the Asian Games in Busan.

The world championship bronze medallist, who is also the Asian record holder, came home in 2:09.97.

He won by a massive 3.5 seconds to smash the mark of 2:10.16 set by American Mike Barrowman in Barcelona in 1992.

Kitajima is the first Asian to hold a men's world record since Nobutaka Taguchi held the 100 breaststroke record in 1972.

  Key marks

2:09.97 Kosuke Kitajima (Jap) 2 Oct 02

2:10.16 Mike Barrowman (USA) 29 July 92

2:12.90 Nick Gillingham (GB) 18 Aug 89

2:12.90 Barrowman 3 Aug 89

2:13.34 Victor Davis (Can) 2 Aug 84

2:15.11 David Wilkie (GB) 24 Jul 76

Wang Hai Bo of China was second in 2:13.60 and Japan's Daisuke Kimura third in 2:15.81.

"I've been working toward this for a long time and I don't feel as though I've even reached my limit," Kitajima said.

"I swam very smoothly over the first half and I think I can swim even faster."

Japan took further golds in the pool through Shunichi Fujita in the men's 400m freestyle and world champion synchronised swimming pair, Miya Tachibana and Miho Takeda.

But otherwise it was China's day, as they won 21 of the 31 available golds and set world records in shooting and weightlifting.

China swept all six rowing races, won seven of eight shooting golds and four out of the six swimming races.

Le Maosheng takes gold with a new world record

That gave the Chinese a four-day total of 36 golds to 13 for Japan and 10 for South Korea.

However, it was also revealed on Wednesday that three Malaysian sepak takraw players, a game similar to volleyball but played with feet rather than hands, have been sent home after testing positive for morphine before leaving Kuala Lumpar.

Hosts South Korea took three of the day's four judo titles, and bagged another gold with Kim Yong-mi's photo finish victory over Indonesia's Uyun Muzizah in the women's 96.8km cycling road race.

North Korea had three golds, including victories in judo and the women's team trap shooting, the only firing range event not won by China.

The Chinese were handed another rare defeat in fencing, where they lost to Kazakhstan in the men's epee team event.

China's weightlifting golds included a world record 182.5kg by Le Maosheng in clean and jerk in the men's 62-kg division.

  Medal table

1. China 62 medals (36 gold)

2. Japan 45 medals (13 gold)

3. S Korea 40 medals (10 gold)

4. N Korea 11 medals (3 gold)

5. Kazakhstan 6 medals (2 gold)

They also captured further records in the shooting, where the men's team set a new best of 1,788 points in the 10m air rifle event.

The women's team matched that feat in their version of the event, beating their own mark with 1,194.

China also beat North Korea to the women's team gymnastics gold and took all three of Wednesday's women's swimming titles.

Zhan Shu won the 100 backstroke, Xu Yanwei the 100m freestyle and Zhou Yafei the 100m butterfly. The men's 400m freestyle relay quartet also won.

In rowing, China's Zhu Zhifu took the men's lightweight single sculls and Cui Yonghui the men's singles sculls.

The country's coxed fours crew also cruised to victory by 12 seconds.

And in the women's races, China proved even more dominant.

Fu Fengjun won by 18 seconds in the lightweight single sculls, the coxless fours came home 21 seconds clear and Zhang Xiuyun built a 23-second winning margin in the single sculls.