Wu Yanyan and Chen Yan finally gave China's swimming team something to smile about last night, storming to a superb one-two finish in the women's 200-metre individual medley. Wu, who smashed the world record for the distance at China's National Games last year, finished seven seconds outside her mark but was still too strong for the rest of the field. Trailing in fifth place at the halfway mark, she stepped up a gear and overhauled South Korea's Cho Hee-yeon and Yasuko Tajima of Japan to finish in two minutes and 15.12 seconds. Chen, making her first appearance in the Games after recovering from a stomach bug, finished in 2:15.54. Wu and Chen's performances were the highlight on a good night for China, who are locked in a fierce battle with Japan for outright swimming supremacy. Last night Japan bagged two more golds and two silvers to finish the day narrowly ahead of China in the swimming medal standings. China added two more golds and four silvers last night and now have a total of 26 swimming medals, while Japan are on 28. Earlier in the day, Hong Kong's Sherry Tsai Hiu-wai had clocked a time good enough for a place in the medley final with Wu and Chen but she was withdrawn by coach Chan Yiu-hoi. 'She did well to get to the final, but I felt it would be better to rest her for the relay later in the day,' Chan said. There was to be no bronze medal repeat for Mark Kwok Kin-ming, who touched home in eighth place in the men's 200-metre butterfly final. Kwok, who snatched a brilliant bronze in Thursday night's 400-metre final, touched home in 2:03.45. In the morning heats, Kwok had secured his place in the final after finishing third behind Tseng Cheng-hua of Taiwan and Japan's Hisayoshi Tanaka in a time of 2:04.62. Szeto Shui-ki was unable to join Kwok in the final though. He was a distant sixth in his heat, clocking 2:15.28, well off the necessary pace. Freestylists Arthur Li Kai-yien and Fu Wing also missed out on a place in the 50 metres freestyle sprint final, but gave their Hong Kong teammates a lift with a first and second-place finish in the consolation final. In the women's 4 ? 100 medley relay, Hong Kong's quartet of Tsai Hiu-wai, Caroline Chiu, Tung Xue-ming and Robyn Lamsam rallied for half of the race but finally had to settle for fourth place behind Japan, China and South Korea in a time of 4:24.75. Despite Hong Kong's inability to add to their medal tally, coach Chan was all smiles. Regardless of how Hong Kong's swimmers fare in the final day of competition today, the squad had already surpassed all expectations, Chan said. 'So far we have broken something like 11 national records and, with Mark Kwok's bronze medal on Thursday night, I can safely say that we have done much better than we hoped for. Realistically, I don't think we can win any more medals, but I'm very, very happy,' Chan said. 'So many of our swimmers have set personal bests and you can't really ask for more than that,' he said. 'I am very satisfied with our performance. To get into the top six in Asia is very good for us.' Hong Kong's water polo team were comprehensively sunk by Uzbekistan in their opening match yesterday. The SAR's men were beaten 27-3 by the powerful former Soviet state team. They play China in the next round of matches tomorrow. Meanwhile, China's Fu Yong, suspended for two years after a positive steroid test at the 1994 Asian Games, was beaten into second place in the 100-metre backstroke as Malaysia's Keng Liat Lim won a gold that seemed to take him completely by surprise. 'I feel like I'm making history for my country,' Lim said. 'I didn't expect to win the gold - I just wanted to finish in the top three.' Lim set a Games record of 55.53 after converting a flying start into a good victory over 200 backstroke winner Fu (56.40) and Raymond Papa of the Philippines. China's Chen Hua won her third gold, this time over 800m, after a close battle with Japan's Sachiko Yamada. Chen Hua clocked 8:38.00 to Yamada's 8:39.21, with Eri Yamanoi giving Japan a bronze in 8:56.90.