Japan's Kosuke Hagino stunned Chinese swim star Sun Yang and home hero Park Tae-Hwan to snatch gold as records tumbled at the Asian Games here today.
Favourites Sun and Park, after whom the Incheon centre is named, duelled throughout the 200 metre freestyle race but it was Hagino, 20, who surged to an unexpected win.
Hagino's exploits followed a record-breaking session at the weightlifting where North Korea's Kim Un-Guk broke three records on his way to gold and Taiwan's Hsu Shu-ching set a new combined mark in the women's 53kg class.
Hong Kong's Olympic cycling star Sarah Lee Wai-sze rode off with women's keirin gold as the action increased on day two of Asia's Olympics.
South Korea stayed just ahead of China at the top of the medals table by a gap of one silver, with both countries tallying 12 golds at the end of day two.
Sunday's swimming clash was the first in a triple-header between the controversial but prodigiously gifted Sun and "Marine Boy" Park, a poster-boy for the Games in Incheon.
Now they face a new challenge from the 20-year-old Hagino, who also beat American legend Michael Phelps when he took the 200m individual medley at last month's Pan Pacific championships in Australia.
"I didn't think I could win tonight," Hagino said. "Sun and Park are on a different level and it's an incredible feeling to beat them.
"It will give me so much more confidence when I race them again in international competitions."
In weightlifting, Hsu equalled a new clean and jerk record by Kazakhstan's Zulfiya Chinshanlo, raising the combined world mark and winning gold in the process.
But her exploits were outshone by North Korea's Kim Un-Guk, who set a new clean and jerk record and twice broke his own combined world mark to win the men's 62kg.
South Korea unearthed an unlikely hero in Seoul schoolboy Kim Cheong-Yong, 17, who upset the Olympic and world champion Jin Jong-Oh to win the 10m air pistol title.
The shy Kim also helped South Korea bag the team title and said winning Asiad gold was like a "dream come true".
