China's teenager standout takes limelight with second gold in London

LONDON, July 31 (Xinhua) -- China's swimming breakout swimmer Ye Shiwen stunned the world again as she captured her second Olympic gold in women's 200m individual medley at London Olympics on Tuesday, beating the Olympic record she set earlier in the semifinal.

Ye, 16, launched another devastating final length of freestyle to sprint home first in 2:07.57.

Australian Alicia Coutts, who already took a gold in bronze in 4x100m freestyle relay and 100m butterfly in London, took silver in 2:08.15. The bronze medal to American Caitlin Leverenz who clocked 2:08.95.

Roared on by a capacity crowd, Ye maintained her strength in the first butterfly leg, hanging on to let defending Olympic champion Stephanie Rice to lead the field. As the fourth at the turn, she gradually reeled in and seized the lead after her backstroke leg.

After a slow lead off from Coutts in the breaststroke leg, Ye put on a devastating final 50m and leaving Coutts for dead at the last second.

"I couldn't lose the race," said Ye, who was tipped the top seed in the race.

"I didn't expect others to swim so fast. I was surprised," she added.

Ye's signature last 50m well impressed the world, and was also clearly aware by her competitors.