Bobby Houghton's side tore the Omanis apart in the first half to take a four goal lead and virtually assure themselves of a place in the quarter-finals of the tournament.

The win was China's fourth in a row in the competition and it takes their unbeaten run to 12 matches.

More importantly it gives the Chinese maximum points from the opening two games in group three of the second round before they head into the crunch tie with Iran on Saturday.

The Chinese can afford to lose, having far superior goal difference to Oman, who play Tajikistan, but Houghton's side will be looking for revenge for two heavy World Cup qualifying defeats last year at the hands of the Iranians.

Then China lacked confidence but now, with Houghton taking over from Qi Wusheng at the start of the year, the national side is displaying a high degree of self belief.

That was evident in the manner of the win over Oman.

Hao Haidong opened the scoring after just two minutes as Zhao Junzhe's tore the heart out of the Omani defence and the Dalian Wanda striker slotted home with nonchalant brillance from just inside the area.

Yao Xie made it two 20 minutes later when he capitalised on a devastating run by Crystal Palace defender Sun Jihai that left two Omanis in his wake before Yao picked the ball up, beat one man himself and slid the ball past the keeper.

By then the Omanis were demoralised and the Chinese seemed to have the time and space to do as they pleased.

Li Jinyu, who had an impressive first half, then weighed in with two to give China a four goal advantage at the end of the half.

For the first the Nancy striker turned to place a right foot shot past the keeper after 29 minutes while the second saw him chest down Hao's cross eight minutes later and thump the ball home.

Unlike in previous performances the Chinese refused to ease off in the second half and by the 62nd minute they were even further ahead - Li Wei Jun beating the Omani keeper to Hao's right wing cross to head in.

Zhou and fellow world championship silver medalist Cai Yuyan won the men's three metre springboard and women's platform finals, giving China a clean sweep of the four Asiad diving golds.

The performance raised Zhou's confidence to take on Zautin -- who took the three-meter springboard and platform golds at the world championships in January.

"If Zautin was here today, I would have beaten him. My next goal is to defeat him in the Sydney Olympics."

"The competition was of world class with our two divers both surpassing 700 points," said China's diving coach Hu Enyong. "If Sautin was here, he would have been scared at the high score."

But Zhou and Cai had to battle teammates Yu Zhuocheng and Li Na to the bitter end to claim gold.

Zhou won his event with 712.02 points. He relinquished the lead to Yu on the penultimate of the six-dive final, but grabbed it back with the highest-scoring dive of the event, an inward three-and-a-half worth 89.76 points.

Yu had to settle for second with 708.12 points and Thailand's Suchart Pichi added another bronze to the one he earned in the platform with a total of 654.75 points.

Cai started the second phase of the women's platform final -- five dives of unlimited difficulty - slightly behind Li.

Li maintained her edge with the first two dives of the day, the fifth and sixth of the competition overall.

But her closing dives did not match Cai's in difficulty, and on two of them her execution was less polished.

Cai, a veteran at 16, leapt at the opportunity. She moved a fraction of a point ahead after her seventh dive, a backward three-and-a-half, and never again relinquished the lead.

Li closed her performance with a beautiful forward three-and-a-half -- earning the competition's high total of 81.90 points -- but it wasn't enough.

Cai's score of 77.40 for the same dive was good enough for the victory.

North Korea's Choe Myong-Hwa won the bronze medal with 499.35 points.

China topped the medal standings with 50 golds, 35 silvers, 23 bronzes after hauling in 25 golds on the fifth day of the competition.

Japan remained second with a 21-23-28 record with South Korea third with 19-10-7.

Host Thailand overtook Kazakhstan in the medal standings, placing fourth with a 7-10-17 collection.

"Something have taken place in the past fours years, we are looking forword to pocket at least three golds in this Games,"said Chinese head coach Li Yongbo.