Chinese teenager Zhang Lin stole the spotlight from Olympic and world champion Luo Xuejuan on Wednesday as he broke the men's 1,500m freestyle Asian record on day one of the swimming competition at the East Asian Games.

The 18-year-old Zhang clocked 15 minutes 00.27 seconds to shatter the previous mark of 15:09.52 set by Japanese Matsuda Takeshi in April last year.

Zhang claimed the gold medal, while South Korea's Park Tae-hwan was narrowly beaten into second, just 0.05 seconds behind.

Takeshi took bronze in 15:37.94.

Luo, the No. 1 star in the pool at the EAG, cruised to victory in her specialty, the women's 50m breaststroke, timing 31.67 seconds.

Japan's Nakamura Sayaka was a distant second in 32.67, and Hong Kong's Suen Kayi took bronze in 33.45.

China made it a 1-2 finish in the women's 100m freestyle final, with Pang Jiaying grabbing the title in 54.65 and Yang Yu the silver in 55.53.

Li Jie of China overcame a slow start to win the women's 200m butterfly final in a games record of 2:10.26, followed by Japanese Yuko Nakanishi in 2:10.39.

China's Huang Xiaotong snatched the bronze in 2:10.88.

Chinese veteran Zeng Qiliang claimed the men's 100m breaststroke event, touching home in 1:02.34 seconds. Second- placed Japanese Genki Imamura was 0.43 seconds behind.

Daisuke Kimura, also of Japan, took bronze in 1:03.14.

Huang Shaohua anchored China to victory in the men's 200m freestyle relay final in 7:22.83. South Korea came second in 7:25. 61, followed by Japan in 7:27.03.

By a stroke of luck, Japan picked up two golds in the women's 200m backstroke as Aya Terakawa and Takami Igarashi finished joint first in 2:12.15.

China's Chen Xiujun took bronze in 2:13.34.

Yuta Shoji added a third gold for Japan as he came from behind to win the men's 200m individual medley final in 2:02.56.

Japanese Hidemasa Sano, who was the leader in the first 100 meters, had to settle for the silver in 2:03.24. South Korea's Han Kyu-chul had bronze in 2:03.47.

Source: Xinhua