China, one of Asia’s swimming powerhouses, dominated the 25-meter short course swimming at the Incheon Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games on Monday, taking four of the seven gold medals on offer.

China’s gold medals came in the men’s and women’s 50-meter backstroke, and men’s and women’s 4X100-meter freestyle relay. All four gold medals were taken in record times for the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games.

The women’s team completed the race in 3 minutes 41.63 seconds, while the men’s team set a new Games record of 3 minutes 15.74 seconds. Combined with the gold medals the Chinese team took on Sunday, the total has been pushed to six.

“Although our team was falling behind Thailand in the beginning of the race, we knew China would win because we have excellent teamwork,” said Fei Wang to AGNS right after the match.

“Setting a new record in the Games was really unexpected, and it definitely feels good,” added Wang.The Chinese team members are Siqui Wang, Luomeng Ren, Siwen Liu and Fei Wang. Liu and Wang also contributed in winning a silver for women‘s 4 x 50m medley relay Sunday.

The remaining gold medals from Monday were divided up among Korea, Indonesia and Kazakhstan. Korea won a surprise gold in the men’s 100-meter butterfly through Chang Gyu-cheol. Chang, who entered the finals in fifth place, finished the race in 51.56 seconds, slashing his qualifying time by more than 2 seconds.

“The time in the preliminaries was good, so I was worried about the evening race,” Chang said.

Along with Chang’s gold, Korea took three silver medals on Monday. Kazakhstan’s single gold medal was brought in by Elmira Algaliyeva, who won the women’s 100-meter butterfly race. Algaliyeva’s gold was the first for the country in women’s swimming.

“I am so happy with my first gold medal. I am sure every other athlete trained hard, but I must say I practiced very hard for this gold at the Games,” said Algaliyeva after the race. With Kazakhstan’s Roman Trussove earning the country’s first gold in the men’s 50m breaststroke, Kazakhstan has two golds from the Games so far.

Indonesia’s gold medal was won by Indra Gunawan in the men’s 50-meter breaststroke. The 25-meter short course swimming events will continue until Wednesday, with 15 more gold medals remaining up for grabs.

By Choi He-suk 
(cheesuk@heralcorp.com)