Injury-hit host butterflier Zhou satisfied with fourth finish
11/8/2008 17:37
One step missing the podium in the Water Cube in Beijing today didn't make
Chinese butterfly specialist Zhou Yafei upset at all.
"In such a tough race,
I'm really satisfied with my result. The Chinese swimming has also been
improving a lot," said the veteran struggling with injuries all along.
After
setting a new personal best of 57.68 seconds in the semifinals yesterday
morning, the 24-year-old swam a little bit slower in today's final, finishing
fourth by clocking 57.84 seconds.
"To be frank, I was rather tired after the
semifinals," said the World Championships finalist. "The final for me was really
a big challenge in physical, but mentally I didn't allow myself to admit it.
After all, completing three races all under 58 seconds was a success to
me."
Zhou fainted alongside the pool after helping the Chinese women's medley
relay team to clinch the title at the 2003 Barcelona World Championships. In
recent years, She was tormented a lot by her back and shoulder injuries.
Zhou
suffered a tearing ligament on her left shoulder last December. Then, the
butterfly specialist was hit by an acute left shoulder ache relapse about ten
days before the Chinese national Olympic trials this April. Two months later,
she was tortured again by shoulder injury due to a uncomfortable test for the
extremely tight Speedo LZR Racer swimsuit.
"Ahead of the Olympic Games, I was
really nervous as I could not foresee what would going on in the pool," said
Zhou who finished the heats in 57.70 seconds Saturday evening. "But the
preliminary race made me confident even though I realized that the top swimmers
were fast beyond imagination."
"At last year's World Championships, my result
of 59.3 seconds was ranked tenth in the heats, but you can only be placed about
30th here with the same time," the experienced swimmer said.
Head coach Zhang
Yadong has declared that the Chinese swimming team was not expected to grab any
gold at the Beijing Games, but Zhang Lin's breakthrough in the men's 400-meter
freestyle yesterday was still a impetus to the host team.
"We are still far
away from the top level in the swimming world and we are low-keyed towards the
Games," said Zhou. "No matter what, we train very hard everyday and we prepare
for winning glory for our country."
Xinhua
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