Kosuke Hagino stunned the swimming world — mostly, himself.

Hagino got Japan off to a phenomenal start in the pool at the Asian Games by beating Olympic champions Sun Yang of China and Park Tae-hwan of South Korea in the men's 200-meter freestyle on Sunday.

In what was hyped to be a two-horse race between Yang and Park — joint silver medalists in the event at the 2012 London Olympics — 20-year-old Hagino came on late to win by a touch in a Japanese record of 1 minute, 45.23 seconds over Yang. Crowd favorite Park faded to third in 1:45.85.