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China continues record-breaking performance in the pool
4/11/2005 9:54

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Gao Chang set a new mark in the women's 50m backstroke with 28.52 seconds. (Photo: Sina)

Chinese swimmers maintained their record-breaking momentum and swept seven of eight events Thursday on Day Two of the swimming competition at the East Asian Games.

Xu Yuanwei and Zhou Yafei made a 1-2 Chinese finish in the women's 50m butterfly, with the former setting a new Asian record of 26.63 seconds. Zhou also beat the previous best of 26.73 by .02 seconds.

Japanese Ayako Doi finished a distant third in 27.34.

Zhou Jiawei matched his female teammates by winning the men's 50m butterfly final in a Asian-record time 23.98 seconds.

"I hadn't expected a new Asian record because I was exhausted after the Chinese National Games," said Zhou.

Japan's Ryo Takayasu came second in 24.34, and South Korean Sung Min was third in 24.81.

Chinese teenager Zhang Lin, who smashed the Asian men's 1,500m freestyle record Wednesday, won the 200m in a games-best one minute, 48.64 seconds.

Asian record-holder Ouyang Kunpeng of China came from behind to defeat Japanese Takashi Nakano in the men's 200m backstroke, also setting a new games mark of 1:58.24.Nakano was merely .55 seconds behind, and his teammate Masafumi Yamaguchi took bronze in 2:03.11.

Gao Chang also set a new mark in the women's 50m backstroke with 28.52 seconds and beat Japanese duo Aya Terakawa and Masaki Oikawa into second and third place.

Fifteen-year-old Zhao Jing clocked 2:16.00 to win the women's 200m medley final, followed by South Koreans Jung Ji-yeon and Nam Yoo-sun.

Japanese Takeshi Matsuda spoiled China's perfect run in the next-to-last final of the night, winning the 800 freestyle in 8 minutes 3.19 seconds -- almost six seconds ahead of China's Xin Tong.

But the Chinese women easily won the 4x200m freestyle to round off the night.



 Xinhua news