Promising return to form for China

Source: China Daily

Zhang Lin and the women's freestyle relay team triggered roars of Chinese delight at the Water Cube with record-breaking swims on the opening night of the Beijing Olympics swimming competition Saturday.

Zhang surpassed himself by shaving more than a second off his personal best time in an Asian record to be the second-fastest qualifier into Sunday's men's 400m freestyle final.

And the Chinese women left it to the last event to establish a second Asian record with a sensational combined effort to be the fastest qualifiers into Sunday's final of the 4x100m freestyle relay.

The team of Zhu Yingwen, Tang Yi, Xu Yanwei and Pang Jiaying, upstaged Germany, the United States, the Netherlands, France and Australia to snare the prized middle lane in the final.

Pang stormed home on the anchor leg with a sizzling 52.83 sec for China to hit the wall in three minutes 36.78 sec.

"The Chinese team are feeling very excited about tonight," Pang said.

"We are very happy to have got such a good result. We just have to try our uppermost to do the same thing tomorrow.

"We can't promise anything because you don't know if you can retain that level."

Zhang thrilled the capacity crowd inside the futuristic Water Cube complex with his heat win over South Korean world champion Park Tae-hwan in an Asian record of 3:43.32.

"Actually, I thought about it before the competition," Zhang said.

"I'm in the same heat with Park Tae-hwan and in the next heat there will be Grant Hackett, so I just have to try my best. Otherwise, I might not even make the final."

The opening night's performances pointed to a promising home Olympic Games for the Chinese swimmers after years of low-key results.

It comes after its worst performance in 15 years at last year's World Championships in Melbourne, where it won just one silver and one bronze medal.

Since its prime at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, when China won four golds, the squad has had to fight the stigma of doping scandals and has managed just two golds in the following three Games - one in 1996 and one in 2004.