Full of surprise in Asian swimming championships

Asian swimming championships just ended few days ago. I got to watch the last 2 days competition. Chinese team topped the medal tally with 42 golds, just 4 golds to HK, Singapore and Japan. Worth to mention here is HK is part of China and the only gold for Singapore was contributed by the former Hubei swimmer, Tao Li, so China only lost 1 to other countries. But that is not a very important issue. We see hope in Chinese swimming in this competition.

After 10th Chinese National Games (CNY) last year, there were a few low key international competitions going on. The 1st surprise was East Asian Games (EAG) in Macao where some of Chinese swimmers performed better than CNY such as Cai Li in men's 50 m free, Huang Shaohua in men's 100 free, Zhang Lin in men's 400 and 1500m free, Ouyang Kunpeng in backstroke events, Zhou Jiawei in sprint butterfly events, Xu Yanwei and Zhou Yafei in sprint butterfly and Li Jie in 200m Fly. In this competition, Huang S became the 2nd in Chinese and 3rd in Asian man to break 50s mark (49.79) in 100m free. Now, there are 2 sub-50s male swimmers in China. Cai Li is also the one to watch that he is pushing the 50s mark. These will give China enough power to propel into 4 x 100m free relay in 2008 Olympics. Zhang Lin again proved his consistency that he broke 400m free NR and 1500m free AR including 800m NR in the process of 1500m final. Regretfully, just swimming faster will make him become the 1st sub-15 minute swimmer in Asia. The only consolation is to break 3:50 in 400m free (3:48.94) and 8:00 in 800 m free. Neverthe;ess, he has been the 1st Chinese swimmer who makes to 3 middle-distance freestyle finals in World Championships (200m and 1500m in 2005, 800m in 2003). What an achievement at such young age (18 year old). Ouyang still showed his supremcy in backstroke after he concentrates more on this discipline. It proves him right to choose backstroke over butterfly. He also ranked no. 3 (54.07) in the world in 100m back. Breaking 54s will happen sooner and later. Zhou Jiawei, compared to others, competes less internationally but he has been the king of this event nationally for some years. He is the 1st Chinese to break 53s in 100m fly and 24s in 50m fly. More experience and exposure are needed. On women side, Zhu Yingwen still showed his greatness in sprint freestyle since she showed her talents in the sprints last year. She grabbed the bronze in WC and swam a 24.59 in CNG later, just 0.01 off the No. 1 in the world, Libby's 24.58. It has been 8 years no Chinese female swimmer went under 25s nationally or internationally. She used to be more a 100-200m free swimmer and has been a relay member since 2001. She showed her speed when she anchored the last leg of 4 x 100m medley relay in 2004 Olympics. She also competed her 1st individual event (50m free) in this meet after so many world class competitions. Her efforts rewarded. Now, she becomes the oldest swimmer (25 years old) in the national team and looking forward to 2008 Games. In the women's butterfly, the standard has been staying low for some time. This time, we see Xu Y and Zhou Y who are challenging 11-year-old Asian record in 100m butterfly (58.38). Zhou's the closest, just 0.05s off the record and Xu was not far away. Xu also broke Asian Record in 50m fly in EAG. On the other hand, Li Jie, beat Yuko Nakahashi in 200m butterfly, a multi-medallist in this event in world class competition. It really shows the hope for this event.