Olympic champion Liu Zige shows way on another record day at National Games

By (Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-10-19 09:47

JINAN: China's Olympic winner Liu Zige asserted her authority in the women's 100m butterfly on day two swimming of the National Games when three more Asian bests were established in women's 400m freestyle, 100m butterfly and men's 4x100 freestyle relay.

Liu, Olympic winner and the 200m butterfly world record holder, clocked 56.07 seconds for the new Asian record, more than one second well ahead of her Olympic runner-up Jiao Liuyang, who swam 57.40 for a silver.

She was on the edge of breaking the world record with a slight 0.01 second lag.

Deng Biying from China's central Hubei province clocked 57.41 to claim a bronze medal.

"It's already my best ever result, and I'm really satisfied with it," said a smiling Liu, who had no regret for failing to smash the world record.

In the women's 400m freestyle, both Chen Qian from east China's Shandong province and Beijing swimmer Liu Jing smashed the Asian record to pocket the gold and silver.

Chen swam 4:02.35 to knock 2.5 seconds off the previous Asian record. The bronze medal went to Li Xue from the Chinese Army team, who clocked 4:05.55.

The third Asian record fell on men's 4x100 freestyle relay when world champion Zhang Lin led his hometown Beijing team to clock 3:15.50 for the gold medal.

Earlier on Sunday, Zhang led all the way in the men's 200m freestyle preliminary and semifinals, easily qualifying for Monday's final at 1:49.12.

National champion Li Xuanxu, who shattered Asian record to win Saturday's 400m individual medley, unexpectedly missed the podium finish in the women's 400m freestyle with a fourth place at 4:08.21.

A record of 525 swimmers from China's 24 provincial teams, Hong Kong, and the Chinese Army compete for gold in 32 events of the swimming competition slated for Oct. 17-24.