Takahiro Suda and Hideki Omoto won the men's lightweight double sculls on Wednesday, marking the third career Asian Games gold medal for each.
In a rainy men's final at Chungju Tangeum Lake Rowing Center, the Japan pair dueled with China's Dong Tianfeng and Kong Deming at the start, but were able to generate their trademark flying finish to pull away to victory in 7 minutes, 0.57 seconds.
Hong Kong's Chow Kwong-wing and Tang Chiu-mang were second 5.12 seconds back with the Chinese third, 10.13 seconds back of Suda and Omoto, whose victory gives them a little boost ahead in their effort to make it to the Olympics for the first time in 2016.
The 33-year-old Suda appeared to have qualified for the 2012 London Olympics, but he had to participate in a somewhat irregular additional selection race, which he lost.
"I still have room for improvement in every aspect," Suda said.
The pair won the lightweight double sculls at the 2006 Asian Games in Doha and in 2010 they were part of Japan's gold medal-winning lightweight four in Guangzhou, China.