China had expected more golds while Japan did a good job in the swimming competition at the Asian Games, said Chinese head coach Zhang Yadong here on Thursday.

On the last day's swimming competition, China were beaten 1-3 in golds by long-time rivals Japan and share top of the gold medal table with Japan at 16 golds each.

History were made for Syria, Kazakhstan and Singapore as they each had a second swimming gold from an Asian Games.

China hauled in 20 golds in Busan Asian Games four years ago where 32 events took place and Doha had 38 golds on offer.

"We had expected more gold medals but we lost some events we have advantages in," said Zhang. "Japan have been a long-time rival to China and they did great this time."

"South Korea are growing to be stronger. They took three golds this time, which gave us a lot of pressure," he said.

Japan were first in medal tally with a total of 47 medals including 14 silvers and 17 bronzes while China had 22 silvers and six bronzes.

South Korea were ranked third with three golds, all from their wunderkind Park Tae Hwan, two silvers and 11 bronzes from the six-day competition.

"But I should single out several experienced swimmers including Wu Peng, Chen Zuo and Qi Hui in my team as they did bring their potential to a good display in Doha," he said.

Wu, winner of men's 200m backstroke, 200m butterfly and 400m individual medley in Busan, only competed in 200m fly this time and overcame East Asian Games winner Takeshi Matsuda and Pan Pacifics runner-up Ryuichi Shibata for the title.

Chen not only defended his 100m freestyle title but also bettered his own Asian mark in 49.06 while Qi, triple gold medlis there, set her personal best in 200m individual medley to win after her 200m breaststroke and 400m IM victories.

But in women's 50m butterfly, Chinese champions were stunned by Singaporean teenager Tao Li who brought her adopted country the sole swimming gold in Doha.

Xu Yanwei from China was pushed to the second after she claimed50m and 100m freestyle as well as 4x100m free relay and Asian record holder Zhou Yafei missed podium following 100m fly and 4x100m medley relay wins.

Tao, born in China and moving to Singapore with her mother, made a piece of history as she became the first Asian Games swimming gold medalist of the country since 1982 New Delhi Games where Ang Peng Siong won men's 100m free.

With Athens Olympics winner and defending champion Luo Xuejuan missing from Chinese roster, Ji Liping, 18, and Wang Qun, 13, were burdened with expectations but fell short in the 100m breaststroke,where Japanese Asami Kitagawa did a better job to win. Ji was second and Wang finished the last.

Yang Jieqiao, 16, also had to settle for silver the more experienced Yurie Yano of Japan in the women's 800m free.

"I think the young swimmers need to be tempered by more competition," Zhang said. "They did not shine here but we will learn from the lessons here, which is sure to benefit Chinese swimming in the long run."

Chinese male freestyle experts felt threatened by South Korean Park when the 19-year-old Zhang Lin lost to Park, 17, in all three individual events -- 200m, 400m and 1,500m free.

Park attracted even more attention when he bettered the Asian records in 200m and 1,500m free.

He swam in 1:47.12 in 200m free and beat Zhang's Asian best of 15:00.27 by 5.24 to become the first Asian breaking the 15 minutes barrier.

Double Olympic champion became the most crowned Japanese swimmers as he defended his 100m and 200m breaststroke titles and rallied to win the 4x100 medley relay.

Daisuke Hosokawa also finished with three titles all from relay events, the 4x100m medley relay, 4x200m free relay and 4x100m free relay where he and his teammates set a new Asian record in 3:18.95.

Reiko Nakamura and Yurie Yano each reaped two golds in women's competition. Nakamura dominated the 100m and 200m backstroke whileYano came first in 200m fly and 800m free.

Rafd Zyad Almasri became the only seventh Syrian to win a gold in any sport at an Asian Games when the Germany-born won in the men's 50 free.

Vladislav Polyakov beat Kitajima for men's 50m breast, taking the only other swimming gold after Alexei Hovrin's 50m free victory in 1994 Hiroshima Games.