Zhang wins 3rd gold in China national swimming championships
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Zhang Lin of the Beijing team competes in the men's 1500m freestyle final at the Chinese Swimming Championships in Shaoxing, east China's Zhejiang Province, April 26, 2010. Zhang won the gold medal with 15 minutes and 00.39 seconds. [Xinhua/Xu Yu] |
Three gold medals in five days at the Chinese national swimming championships could hardly satisfy world champion Zhang Lin. He cares more about his results.
On the last day of the meet, Zhang added the men's 1500 meters freestyle title to his previous 200m and 400m victory, clocking in 15:00.39, the second fastest in the event this year.
"I don't care about the medal. I care about the time," said Zhang, China's first male world champion swimmer.
"Since my training sessions were mainly over short distances recently, the result today is acceptable," he added.
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Gold medalist Zhang Lin (C) of the Beijing team poses with silver medalist Dai Jun (L) of the Shanghai team and bronze medalist Zu Lijun of the Jiangsu team during the awarding ceremony for the men's 1500m freestyle final at the Chinese Swimming Championships in Shaoxing, east China's Zhejiang Province, April 26, 2010. [Xinhua/Xu Yu] |
Zhang's 200m freestyle result was the sixth fastest on the world rankings while his 400m (3:44.91) was the top-ranked.
"I have not competed in any meet since last October, so I could not find the pace at the beginning of the meet. Fortunately, I gradually got more comfortable. I guess I could swim faster if I compete more," said the 23-year-old.
In the women's 200m breaststroke, Ji Liping of Shanghai edged teammate Sun Ye to lift the title in 2:24.30, beating Sun by 0.27 second while two other Shanghai girls finished 1-2 in the 200m freestyle with Tang Yi winning in 1:57.86, followed by Zhu Qianwei in 1:58.33.
Chen Yin of Hebei won the men's 200m butterfly in 1:55.67 while Zhang Fenglin of Shandong claimed victory in the men's 200m backstroke in 1:58.42.
The men's 4X100m medley relay gold went to Guangdong.
The Chinese national swimming championships had attracted 440 swimmers from 25 teams, but several stars including Olympic champion Liu Zige, former world runner-up Wu Peng and world bronze medalist Sun Yang were absent.
