JAKARTA -- Japan again battled fiercely with China in swimming events on Wednesday at the Asian Games in Jakarta, eventually adding four golds to its medal haul, while China picked up three.
Daiya Seto earned his second gold medal by winning the men's 400-meter individual medley, adding to Sunday's victory in 200 butterfly.
"In the end, I was able to finish the race with a result I am satisfied with," Seto said after touching the wall in the individual medley in 4 minutes 08.79 seconds.
Seto's rival in the event, Kosuke Hagino, finished 1.51 seconds behind in second. Seto posted a wire-to-wire victory in the medley, leading in all four disciplines.
"I had good feelings after swimming in these races that can be a good lead-in moving toward the Tokyo Olympics," Seto said. "I want to explode [and be at full strength] two years from now."
Earlier Wednesday, Yasuhiro Koseki also picked up his second gold medal, adding the 100 breaststroke title to the gold he won in the 200 breaststroke on Tuesday. Koseki finished Wednesday's race in an Asian Games record of 58.86 seconds.
Meanwhile, 17-year-old Natsumi Sakai also collected her second gold, taking the women's 100 backstroke. She earned her first gold in the 4x100 freestyle relay on Sunday.
Sakai said she was "super happy," because she swam the backstroke with determination to win the gold medal, finishing in 59.27 to edge out silver medalist Anna Konishi by 0.40 seconds.
Japan later won the gold in the men's 4x100 freestyle relay.
Japan -- Shinri Shioura, Katsuhiro Matsumoto, Katsumi Nakamura and Juran Mizohata -- finished the race in an Asian Games record of 3.12:68, just 0.61 seconds ahead of second-place China. The victory in the relay meant the second gold medals here for Matsumoto and Mizohata.
During the relay event, there was boisterous support from both the Japanese and Chinese cheering sections. Mizohata said he knew there would be loud cheers during the race.
"It was really good that I could experience swimming in that tense kind of atmosphere," Mizohata said.
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