It was always going to be tough for the South Koreans in badminton, going up against a team that consisted of the respective reigning Olympic and Asian Games singles champions, along with the London 2012 champion doubles pair.

But roared on by a crowd that were vocal and partisan, the host nation fought valiantly and matched their illustrious opponents in every clash.

They just could not quite get the job done.

First, London 2012 winner Li Xuerui fought back to defeat Sung Ji-hyun, and Zhao Yunlei and Tian Qing did likewise against Chang Ye-na and Kim So-yeong, before Wang Shixian held her nerve to win a thrilling deciding set, 21-19, against Bae Yeongju.

She jumped in the air celebrating wildly after her opponent shot wide, having showing huge mental toughness to win a final gold medal in a day that illustrated exactly why China are so dominant in Asian, and indeed world, sport.

By that stage, China had already enjoyed two fencing victories to end the South Korean stranglehold on the piste, with Sun Yujie taking the women's epee before Ma Jianfei claimed the men's foil.

China won the women's team pursuit title in track cycling ©AFP/Getty Images



There were further Chinese titles in artistic gymnastics, synchronised swimming, track cycling and judo, as well as three in swimming and two each in shooting and wushu.

The first of these, in the 10 metre air rifle team shooting, came with drama and a certain degree of farce, when the Chinese team broke the world record only to disqualified for an equipment violation by team member Zhang Binbin, only to be reinstated after an appeal.

There were two South Korea victories on day three at Incheon 2014, in shooting and judo, but after a far weaker day, they have slipped 12 gold medals behind the Chinese and are only one ahead of their usual rivals Japan.

In addition to two judo titles, there were five more wins in the pool for the Japanese, including two for the hero of yesterday, Kosuke Hagino, who set an Asian Games record in the 200m individual medley before swimming the second leg for the victorious 4x200m freestyle relay quartet.

Mongolia and North Korea each netted a third gold, in judo and weightlifting respectively, while Iran won in shooting and Myanmar opened their medal account with male and female titles in sepak takraw.

Myanmar were too strong in both sepak takraw doubles events ©AFP/Getty Images



There was also farce in sepak takraw when Laos were stripped of the guaranteed bronze they initially secured by reaching the last four, after they inexplicably failed to appear for their semi-final, having, they claimed, been caught in heavy traffic.

A final and poignant key moment on day three came courtesy of a first medal of the Games for conflict ravaged Iraq, garnered by under 69 kilogram weightlifter, Mohammed Kadhum Karrar Mohammed.