DOHA -- China's athletes sit high atop the Asian Games medal standings and still have not fulfilled national expectations for the meet.

Midway through the December 1-15 games, China had 99 gold medals by Saturday evening, on track to meet its mark of 150 golds at the last Asian Games four years ago. China's next closest rival, Japan, had 31 golds.

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"Not one of these golds came easy," Duan Shijie, vice president of the All-China Sports Federation, told a news conference Saturday. "We're making progress, but possibly not exactly as we'd expected versus four years ago."

Duan said China's medal take would likely slow in the second half of the games following the end of competition in its traditional areas of strength such as swimming and table tennis.

"From the results of the first half of the competition, in comparison with the last Asian Games, we haven't really achieved any major progress," Duan said.

Duan did, however, cite some notable successes, including world records set by women's weightlifter Chen Yanqing and a fast time by men's 200-meter butterfly winner Wu Peng.

"Our team has performed very well and obtained excellent results," Duan said.

China brought the largest team to the Asian Games - 647 athletes - although 413, or nearly 64 percent, are participating in their first major multi-sport games and average just 23.3-years-old.

Duan, who is leading the delegation in Doha, and other officials said China views the Asian Games as an excellent experience to prepare the young athletes ahead of Beijing, where China hopes to replace the U.S. as the top medal earner.

Duan said he was satisfied with the younger athlete's efforts, even if many of the performances turned in were below world-class.

"We can only really see these as success in the context of Asian regional competition,"

Another Chinese delegation leader Cui Dalin said losses in men's badminton and doubles table tennis showed work still needed to be done across the board.

"We need to consolidate our superiority in our traditional areas of strength," Cui said.