Three Chinese athletes and one Japanese swimmer have been emerged as early candidates for the Asian Games MVP honors, it was announced Sunday at Bushan, S. Korea.

In the short list of four athletes are China's swimming wonder-boy Wu Peng, weightlifter Le Maosheng, gymnast Zhang Nan and Japanese world record breaker Kosuke Kitajima.

Kitajima provided one of the highlights of the games in the first week when he smashed the oldest record in swimming last week in the 200m breaststroke.

Wu Peng, 15, has picked up three gold medals at the games so far, with victories in the 200m backstroke, 200m butterfly and 400m individual medley events.

Sixteen-year-old gymnast Zhang has bettered Wu's gold haul though, finishing her campaign on Saturday with four golds.

The other candidate Le - famous for his eye-catching Mohican hairstyle - was another world record breaker when winning gold in the men's 62kg category.

The Samsung MVP award was introduced in 1998. The winner, who is chosen after a poll of journalists at the games, will be presented with the trophy and a check of 20,000 dollars next Sunday.

( October 7, 2002)