SHENZHEN, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- Xu Jiayu of Zhejiang won the men's 200m backstroke at the 15th National Games on Saturday, securing his fourth consecutive title in the event.

A long-standing leader in Chinese backstroke, Xu built an early lead and never looked back, touching in 1:56.63, 2.16 seconds ahead of Guangdong's Tao Guannan, with Hubei's Wang Yutian taking bronze.

"For me, the result wasn't unexpected," Xu said. "But I still felt pressure because I wanted to deliver a strong performance. This result is a great encouragement and recognition of the technical adjustments I've been making. I hope my improvements can help push Chinese backstroke forward."

In the men's 4x200m freestyle relay, Shandong and Zhejiang staged a fierce battle. The Shandong quartet of Liu Peixin, Zhao Yipu, Li Yifeng and Zhang Zhanshuo claimed gold in 7:05.36.

The Zhejiang team of Fei Liwei, Sun Yang, Pan Zhanle and Wang Shun finished second in 7:06.74.

"We all focused on swimming our own leg as well as possible," said Liu Peixin. "Zhejiang had three Olympic champions and an Asian Games champion - they are our seniors. The best way to respect them is to give everything in the race, and I think we did that today."

Earlier in the evening, world record holder Qin Haiyang of Shanghai won the men's 200m breaststroke in 2:07.69, earning his third straight National Games title. Dong Zhihao of Jiangsu took silver, and Hong Kong's Mak Sai Ting earned bronze.

Hong Kong's Siobhan Haughey captured the women's 100m freestyle in 52.89 seconds, with Shandong's Yang Junxuan and Jiangxi's Cheng Yujie taking silver and bronze respectively.

In the women's 200m breaststroke, 15-year-old Lv Qinyao of Jiangsu claimed gold in 2:23.63, followed by Shanghai's Tang Qianting and Yunnan's Zhu Leijie. Enditem