World champion Sun Yang of Zhejiang swims en route to 800m freestyle title at the national championships in Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province, yesterday. |
Chinese veteran Wu Peng won the men's 200-meter individual medley title at the national championships in Shaoxing yesterday, which also serves as an Olympic qualifier.
Wu, runner-up in the 200m fly at the 2007 Melbourne worlds, ruled the 200m IM in 1:59.50 seconds, beating Hunan's silver medalist Yang Zhihe by 0.33 second. Defending champion Wang Shun, also from Zhejiang, finished third in 2:00.59.
"I had planned to compete in the 100m fly, but it would be too tiring for me to take part in two events in one night," said Wu, who also won the 50m fly gold on Tuesday. "So I had to choose one and I'm happy that I reached the Olympic A standard in the IM."
Wu will compete with American swimming champion Michael Phelps at the London Games in 200 fly and 200 IM. The 25-year-old Wu said there was still a big gap between top swimmers and him in the 200 IM.
"The 200 IM is still dominated by foreign swimmers and I have a big gap compared to them," he said. "So I will focus on 200 fly."
The 1,500m world champion Sun Yang won the 800m free final for his second gold. Sun won the 400m free on Tuesday.
Sun won the 800m in a time of 7:47.11, which was almost 15 seconds behind the world record set by another Chinese Zhang Lin at Rome worlds in 2009. But Sun didn't seem to be worried about the time.
"I just competed as a warm-up," he said.
Hunan's Wang Kecheng came in second and Zhang Yunxiang of Shandong was third.
Shanghai's Lu Ying, bronze medallist in the women's 100 fly at the Shanghai worlds last year, led throughout the final to win in 57.48.
The Shanghai worlds 200 fly winner Jiao Liuyang of Guangzhou Army came in second in 57.80, while Beijing Olympic champion Liu Zige, representing Shanghai, finished third in 57.85.