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China's record relay win is the first for season
Source: Agencies |
December 17, 2010, Friday
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CHINA has set the first swimming world record of 2010, winning the women's 800 freestyle relay at the short-course world championships in Dubai.
The quartet of Chen Qian, Tang Yi, Liu Jing and Zhu Qianwei timed 7 minutes, 35.94 seconds on Wednesday, improving on the previous mark by the Netherlands set two years ago by nearly three seconds.
While world records fell by the dozens in 2008 and 2009, no marks had been set this year after rubberized bodysuits were outlawed. There still has been no individual mark set in either the long- or short-course pool.
Also, Olympic champion Cesar Cielo, American rival Nathan Adrian and French standout Frederick Bousquet appear set for a foam-filled sprinting battle. Attempting to reinforce his mantle as the world's fastest man in the pool, Brazil's Cielo led the 50-meter freestyle heats yesterday in 21.06 seconds, 0.05 seconds ahead of Adrian, with Bousquet third, 0.06 back.
Cielo won the 50 free at the 2008 Beijing Games and then swept both sprints - the 50 and 100 free - at the 2009 long-course worlds in Rome. But he failed to win over both distances at the Pan Pacific championships in August, where Adrian prevailed.
Also yesterday, Americans Ryan Lochte and Natalie Coughlin registered top qualifying times. Lochte led the 400-meter individual medley in 4 minutes, 1.76 seconds, improving on his own championship record from four years ago.
Lochte already won his first gold of this meet in the 200 free on Tuesday, but saw his bid for eight golds prematurely ended when the US squad finished an unexpected fourth in the 400 free relay.
The relay loss means Lochte won't have to answer too many more questions about matching Michael Phelps' record eight golds in Beijing.
Olympic 1,500-meter champion Oussama Mellouli was Lochte's top challenger again, finishing 0.51 behind.
Coughlin, a three-time Olympic champion, swam 52.57 in the heats for the 100 free. Another American, Ariana Kukors, set a meet record in the 100 IM, clocking 59.14 to eclipse Jenny Thompson's mark from 1999.
There was also a championship record in the women's 50 butterfly, with Sweden's Therese Alshammar touching in 25.23, 0.18 ahead of Australia's Felicity Galvez, who won two golds in Beijing.
Meanwhile, China is stopping a former Asian record holder from returning to competition even though the World Anti-Doping Agency intervened to cut short his doping ban.
To demonstrate zero-tolerance for doping before the 2008 Beijing Olympics, China banned backstroker Ouyang Kunpeng for life for failing a drug test.
WADA and swimming's governing body are quietly pressuring China to cut the ban to two years. That ban should have ended this May.
But Chinese officials said they will not allow Ouyang to compete in any officially sanctioned events in China.
"We won't let him represent China in any competition," swim official Yuan Haoran said. "He won't enter the Chinese national team again because of the very bad precedent he set."
The quartet of Chen Qian, Tang Yi, Liu Jing and Zhu Qianwei timed 7 minutes, 35.94 seconds on Wednesday, improving on the previous mark by the Netherlands set two years ago by nearly three seconds.
While world records fell by the dozens in 2008 and 2009, no marks had been set this year after rubberized bodysuits were outlawed. There still has been no individual mark set in either the long- or short-course pool.
Also, Olympic champion Cesar Cielo, American rival Nathan Adrian and French standout Frederick Bousquet appear set for a foam-filled sprinting battle. Attempting to reinforce his mantle as the world's fastest man in the pool, Brazil's Cielo led the 50-meter freestyle heats yesterday in 21.06 seconds, 0.05 seconds ahead of Adrian, with Bousquet third, 0.06 back.
Cielo won the 50 free at the 2008 Beijing Games and then swept both sprints - the 50 and 100 free - at the 2009 long-course worlds in Rome. But he failed to win over both distances at the Pan Pacific championships in August, where Adrian prevailed.
Also yesterday, Americans Ryan Lochte and Natalie Coughlin registered top qualifying times. Lochte led the 400-meter individual medley in 4 minutes, 1.76 seconds, improving on his own championship record from four years ago.
Lochte already won his first gold of this meet in the 200 free on Tuesday, but saw his bid for eight golds prematurely ended when the US squad finished an unexpected fourth in the 400 free relay.
The relay loss means Lochte won't have to answer too many more questions about matching Michael Phelps' record eight golds in Beijing.
Olympic 1,500-meter champion Oussama Mellouli was Lochte's top challenger again, finishing 0.51 behind.
Coughlin, a three-time Olympic champion, swam 52.57 in the heats for the 100 free. Another American, Ariana Kukors, set a meet record in the 100 IM, clocking 59.14 to eclipse Jenny Thompson's mark from 1999.
There was also a championship record in the women's 50 butterfly, with Sweden's Therese Alshammar touching in 25.23, 0.18 ahead of Australia's Felicity Galvez, who won two golds in Beijing.
Meanwhile, China is stopping a former Asian record holder from returning to competition even though the World Anti-Doping Agency intervened to cut short his doping ban.
To demonstrate zero-tolerance for doping before the 2008 Beijing Olympics, China banned backstroker Ouyang Kunpeng for life for failing a drug test.
WADA and swimming's governing body are quietly pressuring China to cut the ban to two years. That ban should have ended this May.
But Chinese officials said they will not allow Ouyang to compete in any officially sanctioned events in China.
"We won't let him represent China in any competition," swim official Yuan Haoran said. "He won't enter the Chinese national team again because of the very bad precedent he set."
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