BEIJING: Zhou Jun became the China Tour’s youngest-ever champion on Sunday, easily winning the season-ending Omega Championship by seven strokes.

The 24-year-old Zhou finished with a six-under total of 282, well ahead of Wu Kangchun, his former national teammate and playing partner for the fourth successive day at the Beijing Longxi Hot spring Golf Club.

Both Zhou and the 27-year-old Wu carded a one-under 71 in the final round. Taiwan’s Chan Yih-shin, 31, finished third, one stroke behind Wu, after a 77 in the final round.

Liao Guiming, who finished 17th in Beijing, nevertheless celebrated his first Omega Order of Merit title, succeeding Li Chao, who finished fourth here at three over par for the tournament.

“I can’t believe this. I’m really surprised I played so well again and I’ve just had an amazing week,” said Zhou, who is based in Tianjin.

“Now I just want to spend all of Monday in bed because I’m so tired after playing tournaments for five weeks in a row,” he added.

Zhou put the championship out of reach early in the day, making birdie on the first two holes, while Chan bogeyed the first.

“To be honest, I never even thought about winning at the beginning of the day. However, after two holes, the pressure was more on Chan and I knew I didn’t have to play aggressively or push for birdies,” said Zhou. “I also really enjoyed playing with Wu again and who knows if I would have played so well playing with anyone else. Playing with him made me so relaxed as we just enjoyed ourselves like during our national team training days,” he explained.

Chan was unable to continue the recent run of success by Taiwanese players, who had won four of the previous five events on the Omega China Tour.

Liao was crowned as the 2008 Omega Order of Merit champion at the tour’s gala dinner following the event.