Veteran Qi Hui from Chinese Army dug her first gold out of three-time National Games tour in women's 400m individual medley, while rising rookie Zhang Lin got his status further established with a title in men's 400m freestyle for Beijing in the first day's pool at here Thursday.

The 20-year-old Qi, the silverist of last National Games, came up to lead the final race through two laps of efforts and produced the first swimming gold at the Games. She grasped the title in four minutes and 38.24 seconds.

"The gold is much valued for me, for it's the first one in my three-time national games' competition," said Qi. "It's very hard for me to strive for the title in the past eight years, and the time is also my personal best in the last few years."

Qi, better known for her talent in breaststroke, breaking women's 200m breaststroke world records twice in 2001 and 2002. She hasclinched 14 titles in World Cup short course series from 1999 on and has maintained a good form leading to the National Games.

Zhang Xin from Shandong finished second clocking 4:41.73, and her teammate Yu Yue came in third with 1.11 seconds behind.

Men's 200m freestyle Asian record holder Zhang Lin collected the men's 400m freestyle gold with a margin of 3.18 seconds, finishing in three minutes and 51.32 seconds.

Zhang finished eighth at Montreal swimming championship in 200mfreestyle, which is China's impressive performance in the event. Zhang had renewed China's national records twice in 400m freestylein 2004 and 2005 respectively.

Yu Chenglong from Liaoning was second in 3:54.50 as Tianjin's Zhang Enjian came in third, trailing 0.44 seconds further.

The reigning champions Shanghai defended their title in 4x100 freestyle relay in a time of 3 minutes 40.93 seconds which is 1.14seconds less than what they made out of last national games.

Shanghai has a dominant force in the event with a mixture of China's established veterans like Pang Jiaying, Xu Yanwei as well as Zhu Yingwen.

"Our target was gold. We were confident of our team, so no pressure for us, and we did a good job," said 21-year-old Xu, who took four golds in last national games. The team refreshed the 4x200m freestyle relay world record in Moscow's short course swimming championship in 2002 and broke Asian record in 4x100 medley relay in Busan Asian games.

Zhejiang captured the silver with a time of 3:45.43, and Guangdong slipped to third with 2.06 seconds outside.

Apart from a silver from the women's relay, Zhejiang captured agold in men's 4x100m freestyle relay. They demolished the traditional powerhouses Guangdong and Shanghai, wrapping up the gold in 3:21.29, only 0.22 seconds behind the national record.

China's promising star Wu Peng anchored his team to the title 1.31 seconds ahead of the defending champions Guangdong. Zhejiang was squashed out of the top three in last Games but strode forwardwith a record-close mark four years later.

Guangdong had to get the silver in 3:22.60, and Shanghai took the bronze 0.49 seconds behind.