Teenager Kim Cheon-Yong picked off two shooting golds on Sunday to take South Korea clear of China in the Asian Games medals race as swimming rivals Sun Yang and Park Tae-Hwan headed for a showdown.
North Korea also made its presence felt at the Incheon Games by getting its first gold medal as Olympic weightlifting champion Om Yun-Chol raised more than three times his body weight to set a new world record.
Seventeen-year-old Kim kept his nerve to take the men's 10 metre air pistol title and was also in the South Korean trio that took the team gold. In each case China was forced into second.
Kim beat his sporting hero, South Korea's Olympic champion Jin Jong-Oh who managed only third place. China's former Olympic gold medal winner Pang Wei was second.
The shy teenager, appearing at his first press conference, said winning had been "a dream come true."
China have won the medals battle for the last nine Asian Games and took 199 golds when it hosted the last Asiad in Guangzhou in 2010.
Kim's triumph put South Korea ahead by seven golds to five as the new battle went into the second day.
China will be looking to surge ahead in events such as the swimming where playboy hero Sun Yang will have his first clash with South Korea's Park in the 200 metres freestyle on Sunday.
The two will dispute three races in Incheon and their rivalry has been billed as the highlight of the Games.
Sun, the 22-year-old 400m and 1,500m Olympic and world champion, was fastest in the morning heats, clocking a time of 1min 48.90sec, seemingly with capacity to spare.
Park, 24, who took the 400m at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, was only fourth fastest in 1:50.29.
"That wasn't my best swim but it was just the heats," Park said after. "I will have to swim better tonight and be at my best for the final."
Sun, whose wild image has frequently put him in conflict with China's establishment, has made a lot of their rivalry heading into the Games. He challenged Park in a Chinese television advert in which he said the winner of their races should buy the other a barbecue meal.
- North Korea hero -
Om Yun-Chul became North Korea's newest sporting hero when he set a world record in the men's 56kg weightlifting. South Koreans roared him on to victory. While South Koreans are banned from carrying North Korean flags, one brandished a banner saying "Om Yun-Chul is the best".
The London Olympics champion again beat China's Wu Jingbiao into second place.
Om, who is just 1.52 metres (5 feet) tall, lifted 170kg in the clean and jerk to beat his own world record by one kilo.
He is one of only five competitors to have lifted more than three times his own weight, and one of just four to have achieved it on multiple occasions.
The 23-year-old leapt in the air in delight to celebrate. But he was careful to remember his political etiquette in his tightly controlled home state, which remains officially at war with the Asian Games hosts.
Source: AFP