Olympics: China's Liu sets world record in 200m butterfly win

Thursday 14 August 2008

BEIJING - Liu Zige smashed the world record in a Chinese one-two finish in the women's 200 metres butterfly final at the Beijing Olympics on Thursday.

Liu clocked two minutes 04.18 seconds to smash Australian world champion Jessicah Schipper's world record by 1.22sec to capture gold.

She beat home teammate Jiao Liuyang, who claimed the silver medal in 2:04.72, also under the previous world record time.

Schipper, who was under world record pace up to halfway, could not sustain her challenge and dropped back slightly to finish third in 2:06.26.

It was China's first win in the 2008 Olympic swimming competition and was greeted with a huge roar by the predominant home crowd inside the Water Cube.

Liu had signalled she was up for the challenge for the gold by posting the fastest qualifying time into the final.

"I didn't feel pressure before the competition, I tried to relax," said
Liu.

"And in the race I just swam at my own pace, not caring about others. My
coach said to me that we will have two Chinese swimmers in the final, so you
don't need to force yourself to win gold, you just need to try your best."

It was China's first swimming gold of the Games and only its third since
its prime at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, when it won four.

Since then the squad has had to fight the stigma of doping scandals and
managed just two titles in the following three Games -- one in 1996 and one in
2004.

It helped boast China's overall medal tally to 18 golds, six silvers and
five bronzes in the battle to be the most dominant sporting nation on earth.