DOHA, Dec. 5 (Xinhua) -- China and Japan scored equal victories while South Korea seized one gold from the seven swimming events at the Asian Games on Sunday.

    China and Japan each pulled off three golds while South Koreans were happy to see their up-and-coming star Park Tae Hwan shine again in the men's 400m freestyle.

    Asian record holder Zhou Jiawei opened the gold account for China with a men's 50m-butterfly title on the fourth day of swimming competition as the 23-year-old from Guangdong raced to the win in 23.94 seconds, 0.08 outside his own Asian record set in the spring national championships.

    "I expected this victory because I had been focusing on this event," Zhou said. He came fourth in the 100m fly on Sunday.

    "But the result is not good enough for me as I aimed at breaking my own record in the race," he said.

    Japanese national champion Ryo Takayasu took silver in 24.11 and Chinese Wang Dong was third in 24.23.

    Takashi Yamamoto, 100m fly runner-up in Athens Olympic Games, finished fourth in 24.26. He just became the first male swimmer to win the same individual event at three consecutive Asian Games after he defended his 100m fly crown on Sunday.

    Defending champion Xu Yanwei sailed to the victory of women's 50m freestyle, winning in 25.23.

    Xu, five-gold winners in Busan Asian Games four years ago, also entered for five events this time.

    She had swum the fastest 50m split in the 4x100m free relay on Sunday when China took the gold and won a silver in the 100m butterfly on Saturday. She will compete in the 100m free and 50 fly events.

    Pang Jiaying, 200m free champion on Saturday, came second in 25.84 to give China a one-two finish while Kaori Yamada from Japan was third in 26.01.

    In the women's 4x200m free relay, defending champions China met no stiff competition as they clocked 8:01.89 seconds to win for the third time after the event was added to the Asian Games program in 1998 Asian Games.

    Pang anchored the Chinese team to reach the finish line with three body-lengths of advantage after her Athens Olympic Games teammate Yang Yu was the second to swim.

    Japan took silver with 4.87 off the pace while South Korea were third in 8:14.68.

    China bagged a silver in the 2004 Athens Olympic Games but then participants Zhu Yingwen and Xu Yanwei were missing from the roster this time.

    In the last event of the night, Japanese anchor swimmer Daisuke Hosokawa overtook Chinese Qu Jingyu in the final meters to bring Japan the men's 4x100m freestyle relay win in 3:18.95, beating the previous Asian best by 0.25, set by themselves in last year's world championships in Montreal. It has been the sixth time that Japan triumphed in the event at Asian Games.

    Defending champions China were pushed to the second in 3:19.26 before South Korea in 3:22.16.

    "I am afraid that the loss dealt a blow to Chinese men swimmers and hopefully their morale will not be affected," said Chinese head coach Zhang Yadong.

    "We had expected to break the Asian record in this event but failed to do that and even lost the gold," he said. "I have to say that the anchor swimmer of Japan really did a great job tonight."

    "Besides, the losses in women's 100m breaststroke and men's 100m backstroke are pities for us too," he added.

    Asami Kitagawa and Junichi Miyashita gave Japan two gold medals in women's 100m breaststroke and men's 100m backstroke respectively.

    Kitagawa snapped China's two Games winning streak in this event as she scraped to triumph in 1:09.13.

    The 19-year-old Kitagawa took a silver in the 50m on Saturday behind Chinese teenager Ji Liping, 18, who was second this time in 1:09.47.

    Ji missed the chance to make an Asian sweep in 50m and 100m breaststroke as she already has the Asian championships titles in both events to her name this year.

    South Korean Back Su Yeon settled for the bronze in 1:10.22.

    Miyashita clocked a time of 54.67 to beat Chinese Ouyang Kunpeng, silver medalist in 200m back here on Monday by one quarter of a second.

    The bronze went to another Japanese Masafumi Yamaguchi in 55.78.

    Park, 17, pulled away from the leading pack including Chinese Zhang Lin and Japanese Takeshi Matsuda after the 350m mark before reaching for the title in 3:48.44 seconds.

    "I'm satisfied with the result. During the first 100m I did it the best way. At the 300m mark I knew I could win. My form is very good today. I will try to break my personal record later," he said.

    Park, holding the Asian record in this event in 3:45.72, beat Zhang in their second meeting at the Asian Games as Zhang came second in 3:49.03.

    Park overcame Zhang in the 200m free in an Asian record time on Sunday here after he defeated the 19-year-old in 400m free for the gold.

    Takeshi Matsuda, runner-up in 200m butterfly here, came third in 3:49.38.

    In the swimming medals table, China stand atop with 12 golds, 14 silvers and 5 bronzes and Japan rank second with 10 golds, 11 silvers and 11 bronzes. South Korea is third with two golds, one silver and seven bronzes.