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.
Zhang Lin of China competes in his men's 400m freestyle swimming heat at the National Aquatics Centre during the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, August 9 2008. [Agencies] More Photos about Swimmers |
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.
Convincing style
Michael Phelps made an impressive start to his bid for Olympic immortality Saturday, posting a Games record in the heats of the men's 400m individual medley to kick off nine days of swimming competition.
US swimmer Michael Phelps competes during the men's 400m individual medley swimming heat at the National Aquatics Center at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games on August 9, 2008 in Beijing. Phelps placed first in the event. [Agencies] More Photos about Swimmers |
Phelps, who established the previous Olympic record in winning gold in Athens four years ago, clocked 4 min 07.82 sec - the fourth-fastest time ever.
It was a deceptively smooth performance from the man who lowered his world record in the event to 4:05.25 at the US trials in June, showing that the months of scrutiny leading into the Games haven't taken a toll.
"Just the first-race jitters," a phlegmatic Phelps said of his pre-race butterflies. "But getting that first race under your belt feels really good.
"I didn't think I'd swim that fast in the preliminaries. I saw the first few heats go out, and I kind of wanted to be the top seed for tomorrow, that is all I went out to do."
Phelps, under his world-record pace after both the butterfly and backstroke legs, eased off but easily won his heat before a near-capacity crowd at Beijing's Water Cube aquatic center.
The 23-year-old American, who is gunning for compatriot Mark Spitz's record of seven gold medals at one Games, was never challenged, with Italian Luca Marin second-fastest in his heat in 4:10.22.
Norway's European champion Alexander Dale Oen posted an Olympic record of 59.41 sec to lead the way into the semifinals of the men's 100m breaststroke, upstaging defending Olympic champion Kosuke Kitajima of Japan and world record-holder Brendan Hansen of the United States.
AFP