China snatches 100th gold medal in artistic swimming team event at Asiad

JAKARTA - With the traditional Peking Opera music elements and movements as if the Phoenixes in the water, defending champion China retained the title of the team artistic swimming for the fourth time and it is the 100th gold medal for team China at these Asian Games here on Wednesday.

China, finishing on top with The Beautiful Baikal in the technical routine with 92.5062 points, continued their lead in the free routine in 94.4333 for a winning total of 186.9395 for the title.

Japan snatched the silver medals with 182.8675 and DPR Korea came to third with 170.8475.

"We are honored to win the 100th gold medal for team China! It was a long and busy day. It is the first time we competed both technical and free routines within one day. We got up at 4am and did make-up, warm-up and competition," said Guo Li, a member of China's winning team in the Team Combination at FINA World Championships last year.

"It is no problem at all to our physical strength since we trained much harder than this. We want to show the mixture of Chinese traditional style and physical power and speed to the audience and refereees," Guo added.

China won the team event in artistic swimming at all previous Asian Games and swept all eight gold medals on offer of the sport since 2006.