Chna’s female swimmers added three gold medals to an already impressive haul at the Asian Games Wednesday, stating they had no intention of giving up their dominance in the pool.
Rising star Shen Duo added the women’s 200 metre freestyle title to her gold in the 100m, while Jiao Liuyang defended her 200m butterfly crown and Fu Yuanhui won the women’s 100m backstroke.
China stretched their gold medal lead over rivals Japan to 15-8, with the female swimmers leading the charge since the first day of competition Sunday at the 17th Asiad.
“This year we’ve had good performances in some big competitions around the world,” said Shen, aged only 17.
“The swimmers in our team have a very good relationship with each other and our training camps our excellent — very powerful,” she added.
The junior world record holder has been in startling form in Incheon, South Korea, building on her success at the recent Youth Olympics in Nanjing.
As well as her two individual titles, the teenager from Jiangsu has collected team gold in the women’s 4x100m freestyle relay and the 200m edition.
Zhang Yuhan took the 400m freestyle title while Fu has controlled the backstroke events, winning the 50m gold before adding the 100 title on Wednesday.
Elsewhere, Lu Ying and Chen Xinyi won the 50 and 100 metres butterfly respectively while Olympic champion Ye Shiwen crushed the competition in the women’s 400m medley on Tuesday.
In total, China’s women have contributed 12 of their country’s 15 gold medals this week.
They have dominated the pool in recent years — notably Ye’s double gold in the 200m and 400m individual medleys at the London Games in 2012 aged just 16.
Shen, after collecting her fourth gold of the week, said the team’s dominance would continue in the future.
“We have many very good swimmers, who are all different ages,” she told reporters.
“I think we will continue to be successful and win medals.”
Asian champion Jiao, 23, agrees.
Jiao said she would have to work hard and keep improving if she is to be sure of making the squad for the 2016 Olympics in Rio because of the number of youngsters snapping at her heels.
“I really want to be there but I must get better because there are more and more young swimmers coming through,” she said, adding that they can “encourage and help each other”.