Qin, Zhang star as China send Olympic warning in Asian Games blitz

HANGZHOU, China: World champion Qin Haiyang completed the breaststroke treble on Friday (Sep 29) and Zhang Yufei claimed a sixth gold as China's swimmers sent a final warning shot from the Asian Games ahead of the Paris Olympics.

Their victories were among four titles the hosts snapped up on the final day of swimming in Hangzhou, where they easily topped the table with 28 golds in the pool.

While no world records tumbled across the six-day event, multiple Games and Asian bests were set, some of them eye-popping.

Along with Qin and Zhang, Pan Zhanle became only the fifth man ever below 47 seconds in the 100m freestyle while China went close to smashing two relay world records.

Wang Shun swam the seventh fastest 200m medley in history.

Hong Kong's Siobhan Haughey meanwhile reinforced her threat to Australia's top freestylers with lightning-fast times in the 100m and 200m.

At the last Asian Games, in Indonesia five years ago, Japan tied China at the top on 19 golds. But it was a very different story in Hangzhou.

Japan won just five golds in the pool and South Korea bagged six.

China's Qin was the dominant male swimmer, matching his unprecedented world championship exploits by claiming the 50-100-200m breaststroke hat-trick.

Having already won the 100m and 200m, he blitzed through the 50m in a searing 26.35sec, just outside the 26.20 that won him the world title at Fukuoka in July.

It followed his 26.25 in the heats - the 10th quickest ever with only British great Adam Peaty, who owns eight of the top 10 and the 25.95 world record, surpassing it.

"The results are slightly short of what I wanted, but it's still something I can accept," he said. "This was a chance for me to try some new things and prepare for the Paris 2024 Olympic