No time to waste: Chinese judoka Xu Yan celebrates after her quickfire gold

It can take a varying amount of time to win gold and so it proved on a day when 30 gold medals were decided across 25 sports. A judoka took just nine seconds to earn her place on the top of the rostrum while chess players were left to reflect on four days of hard competition.

China’s Xu Yan did not wait long to produce the ippon score than gave her gold in the -57kg judo.

In contrast the first ever Asian Games chess medals were decided with India’s Humpy Koneru and Kazakhstan’s Murtas Kazhgaleyev emerging victorious in the Swiss Rapid competition. Day four saw nine more gold for China, including stunning individual successes for Yang Wei and He Ning in the all-round artistic gymnastics finals in front of vocal support at ASPIRE.

Rafd Zyad Almasri won gold in the fastest swimming event of Doha 2006, the men’s 50m freestyle, to earn Syria their first gold, while Chinese teenager Zhao Jing became the first ever winner of the women’s 50m backstroke at the Asian Games.

All winners of the day »

The night belonged to Japan however, as they enjoyed a fantastic evening in the pool, claiming gold in four of the seven finals. Kosuke Kitajima, Ryosuke Irie and Yruie Yano all triumphed and the Japanese men’s 4x200m relay squad capped a fruitful night’s work by holding off China for gold in a thrilling last race of the night.

There was a first for Saudi Arabia as brothers Hassan Abdullah Al Shaikh and Bader Adullah Al Shaikh won the country’s maiden gold medal in bowling with victory in the men’s doubles.

And Thailand’s Pawina Thongsuk broke the women’s world record for the clean & jerk on her way to winning the women’s 63kg weightlifting title while her compatriots also took gold in the women’s 50m rifle prone shooting team event.