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sportsworld
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Re: Asian Swimming News Updates ( Articles and Interviews from China, Japan, South Korea etc)
The Olympic selection trials continue : there's no "sudden death" here which means the coaches will have an unenviable task of hallmarking these performances for selection later. (see "Disputes")
Zhang Lin illuminated the pool with a platinum effort in the men's 400m freestyle, thrilling the crowd with a new Chinese record of 3:44.97 - a world-ranked number three time this year. His luster rubbed off on his 18 year-old opponent Sun Yang, who also went under the Olympic A standard but ended weeping in disappointment atop the medal podium. Zhang Lin was ecstatic after the race and pumped his fist with joy. He'll return to train per Oz from May and shoot for at least a bronze medal in August.
In the women's 50m freestyle, Zhu Yingwen ricochetted off the blocks to touch the wall in 25.27 seconds, giving her the win by 0.02 seconds ahead of Xu Yanwei due to her excellent start. She's still far from her PB of 24.53 seconds set in 2005 and was even slower than her swim in heats (25.13s), but from what Xu Yanwei revealed, their goal for this event at Shaoxing was simply to qualify for the Olympics.
Having had to settle for silver in the 400m IM, Qi Hui struck gold in the women's 200m breaststroke final with a time of 2:25.68. Sun Ye and Luo Nan battled hard for the other Olympic spot, and Sun Ye emerged victorious in 2:26.52 whilst Luo Nan timed 2:26.97. Ouyang Kunpeng crushed the field in the men's 100m backstroke to qualify for his second event with a time of 54.91 secs.
The hunt for precious metals continue for the Chinese, here and later, and for the world in general, at their trials and later.
Last edited by sportsworld, 4/5/2008, 7:41 pm
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4/3/2008, 5:28 pm
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sportsworld
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Re: Asian Swimming News Updates ( Articles and Interviews from China, Japan, South Korea etc)
With two days of competition left and no continental record as yet, there's a pressing need for the Chinese swimmers to flare up. Wu Peng, the biggest hope pre-meet, already failed in his bid for a new Asian record in the men's 200m butterfly; Zhang Lin also narrowly missed in the men's 400m freestyle. Fortunately (?) for the Chinese swim team, the only way to go is straight up, and two new Asian records from unexpected sources were born !
The first record came unexpectedly, to outsiders at least, in the evening heats: from the men's 4x100m freestyle relay. With Cui Dalin (China's deputy sports minister) dropping in for a show and many Chinese national team members gathering in the crowd to cheer for the relay team, they set the pool ablaze by demolishing the Asian record set by the Japanese swimmers this year at the Japanese International Swim Meet. The new record stands at 3:17.07, more than a second faster than the previous Asian record and close to two seconds faster than their national record. Having missed the Olympic A standards in their respective events, Chen Zuo and Cai Li were fired up in their roles of leading off and anchoring the team.
In the women's 100m backstroke final, the crowd erupted into thunderous applause when Zhao Jing further turned on the heat to erase the 14 year-old Asian record of 1:00.16. She clocked a sizzling time of 59.81 seconds and became the first female Asian swimmer to break the minute barrier in this event. A look of disbelief initially flickered across her face after checking her time. Zhao Jing was soon smiling broadly and raised her fist in deserved triumph. Her energy spread fire to others in her race: Xutian Longzi with a piping hot PB of 1:00.97 whilst Gao Chang, Zhou Yanxin and Chen Yanyan also swam within the Olympic A standard.
The flames subsided in the pool thereafter, but a spark did come from Pang Jiaying, who dominated the women's 100m freestyle race in a PB of 54.17 seconds.
Last edited by sportsworld, 4/12/2008, 6:10 am
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4/5/2008, 7:25 pm
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sportsworld
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Re: Asian Swimming News Updates ( Articles and Interviews from China, Japan, South Korea etc)
China's final Olympic selection trials tapered off with the last pair of evening heats and morning finals. After a relatively fast fifth session and a jubilant mood in general yesterday, what remained are more of frozen lava and ashes today.
The highlight of the evening heats was the men's medley relay event where China's National Team rocked to a new national record of 3:37.92.
In the men's 1500m freestyle final, Zhang Lin delivered some minor tremors in the pool with a new Chinese record of 14:55.98, a four-second improvement and within a second of Park Tae Hwan's Asian record. He however revealed post-race he was actually expecting a sub 14:50. Runner-up Sun Yang dropped his PB in this event by a staggering 14 seconds since last year and closed in on the 15-minute barrier (15:00.88).
Meanwhile, Qi Hui appeared to have left the tunnel behind her, returning in style this year with a time close to her PB (2:12.61) in the women's 200m IM. Her 400m IM conqueror Li Xuanxu was second in 2:14.54 whilst Li Jiaxing took third place in 2:14.69.
After Luo Xuejuan's retirement, no capable replacement has emerged yet in the women's 100m breaststroke but still there're some budding talent out there. Chen Huijia set a PB of 1:08.13 in the heats, then followed with a 1:08.43 win in the final. 200m breaststroke runner-up Sun Ye claimed another silver medal in 1:08.61.
Zhang Yadong drew the blinds on this trials with a sandstorm of a post-meet press conference where the press fielded tough questions and he in turn chided some reporters for harassing his charges during the meet.
Zhang said his team has progressed in many areas but their margin of improvement is a baby step compared to the world's - world records fell like rain across Planet Earth for the past few months whilst China's trials felt more like the desert with an occasional oasis, but mostly mirages.
On the final make up of the Olympic team, Zhang Yadong confirmed that all selected members will come from those who have participated at this meet, without exception.
On Zhang Lin's rapid improvement since his overseas stint, Zhang Yadong was adamant that grass is also green on this side of the sea and cited Zhao Jing as an example. He however admitted the current team doesn't have any pre-meet Olympic favourite but remained hopeful his team possesses the capability to challenge when it matters.
Some press reports have mentioned, unlike the Euros and the Aussie trials, the core group of Olympic medal challengers weren't fully tapered for this meet due to a difference in selection methods and training cycles. Zhang also acknowledged woefully, certain events for the Chinese team are still residing in a cave - the lastest men's 100m breaststroke national record set at Shaoxing doesn't even meet the Olympic A standard for this event.
The general feel from press reports and Internet message boards throughout this meet points towards inevitable winds of change after August, regardless what results in August. Hopefully, across the next few months, China's swim team will walk out from the wilderness and find direction to point them to the ...
Last edited by sportsworld, 4/7/2008, 2:22 pm
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4/6/2008, 6:54 pm
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