DOHA, Dec 7 - Qi Hui completed her hat-trick of gold medals for the under-pressure Chinese swimming team at the Asian Games with a convincing victory in the women's 200m individual medley on Thursday.

The world short course champion clocked a time of 2:11.92, the third fastest in the world this year, to add to her 200m breaststroke and 400m Individual medley titles

She used her strong breaststroke leg to pull away from the field and leave Japanese pair Asami Kitagawa (2:14.51) and Maiko Fujino (2:15.21) almost three seconds adrift.

Japan's Kosuke Kitajima celebrated his return from injury with his second gold medal of the competition, successfully defending his 200m breaststroke title.

The double Olympic champion used his long glide and powerful strokes to power away, turning first at every wall to finish in 2:12.05.

Compatriot Daisuke Kimura picked up the silver medal for a second successive Games in 2:13.17, with 50m gold medallist Vladislav Polyakov of Kazakhstan third (2:13.60).

Japan won the first gold medal of the night in a tight men's 50m backstroke final, with Junya Koga (25.40) getting the touch over Asian record holder Ouyang Kunpeng of China (25.47) and South Korean Sung Min (25.57).

The two Japanese victories left them trailing China 16-14 in the swimming gold medals tally midway through the final night's racing in Doha.

China took 21 to Japan's 10 at the 2002 Asian Games in Pusan.