| Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, November 15, 2001 |
Luo Xuejuan Narrowly Misses World Record in National Games Swimming |
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Double world champion Luo Xuejuan narrowly missed the world record in women's 100 meters breaststroke but broke the Asian and national records at China's Ninth National Games Wednesday in Guangzhou.
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Luo Xuejuan Sets a New Asian Record of Women's 100m Breast Stroke
China's double world champion Luo Xuejuan narrowly missed the world record in women's 100 meters breaststroke but broke the Asian and national records at China's Ninth National Games Wednesday in Guangzhou.
Luo from Zhejiang Province led throughout the race without any real challenge from the other finalists. She stormed home in a time of one minute 6.96 seconds, 0.44 seconds shy of the world record set by South Africa's Penelope Heyns in 1999.
Luo Nan from Liaoning came second in 1:08.96 and 200m breaststroke world record holder Qi Hui from Chinese Army finished third in 1:09.12.
The 17-year-old Luo said: "I'm proud of being the first Chinese female swimmer to break the 1:08.00 and 1:07.00 barriers in a row after the world championships (in Fukuoka)."
Luo won both 50m and 100m breaststroke titles at the world championships in July this year in Fukuoka, Japan.
Other developmentsCheng Jiaru took the women's 100m backstroke in 1:01.05, world's third fastest time this year, beating veteran Zhan Shu and new star Chen Xiujun, who clocked 1:01.48 and 1:02.12.
The national records fell as Ouyang Kunpeng of Shanghai won the men's 100m backstroke in 55.71, breaking seven-year-old national mark by 0.33 while Liu Yu of Guangdong bettered the national mark in men's 200m freestyle in 1:49.77.
Guo Jianming of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) came sixth in the men's 200m freestyle in 1:53.19. He was the first finalist of the SAR team. He also made the final in the men's 200m butterfly set for Thursday evening.
Profile:Luo was born on January 26, 1984 in Hangzhou, capital of the eastern Chinese province of Zhejiang. She began learning swimming at the age of seven, when she was studying in a primary school.
Luo became a member of the provincial swimming team in 1996, where she began regular training under the instruction of her current coach Zhang Yadong. Three years later, Luo won her first national title.
Luo clocked the world's best time of 31.45 seconds for the 50m and a world's best of 1:07.42 for the 100m event, at last year's national swimming champions meeting in April, five months before the Olympic Games. She competed in the 200m and finished eighth in Sydney.
Making her world championships debut in Fukuoka, the 17-year- old set a championships record of 1:07.48 in the 100m heats and won the final in a new meet record of 1:07.18. |
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