Chinese swimmers Qin Haiyang and Zhang Yufei won the men's 50m breaststroke gold and women's 50m butterfly silver, respectively, at the Athens leg of the FINA World Cup on Saturday.

Qin outclassed Britain's Adam Beaty by 0.37 seconds to win his second gold medal in Athens in 26.52, after winning the 100m breaststroke final a day ago.

Qin has pocketed five golds in breaststroke from the first two legs of the World Cup, having won all three individual breaststroke titles of the men's 50m, 100m and 200m in Berlin a week ago.

He also refreshed all three World Cup records in Berlin with 26.29 seconds, 57.69 seconds, and 2 minutes and 07.45 seconds. 

He will continue the pursuit of dominance in the event of the 200m final, before moving on to the next leg in Budapest, joined by Zhang and teammate Dong Zhihao. 

In the women's 50m butterfly final, Olympic champion Zhang fell again to Sweden's Sarah Sjostrom after Berlin, clocking 25.31 seconds, 0.52 seconds short of Sjostrom, who currently holds the world record of 23.61 seconds from the World Championships in Fukouka earlier this year.

This was the second medal for Zhang in Athens, after she won the women's 200m butterfly title in 2:06.73 a day ago. She will contest in the 100m event to round up her campaign in Athens.

In the 19th Asian Games that concluded a week ago in Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province, Qin and Zhang jointly won the title of Most Valuable Player of this edition of the Asiad, announced the organizers on the second last day of the tournament.

Zhang, 25, clinched six titles while setting four event records, and Qin, 24, pocketed five golds and one silver while refreshing three records in Hangzhou.