At Sunday's Chinese Spring Swimming Championships in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, Ouyang Kunpeng topped the qualifiers in the 50-meter backstroke semifinals with a time of 25.53 seconds, breaking the previous Asian record of 25.67 held by a Malaysian swimmer.

The 22-year-old Ouyang, from Jiangxi Province, said, "I'm not surprised with the result. I swam faster than this during training. Hope I can break it again in tomorrow's final."

Olympian Wu Peng claimed title in the men's 200-meter butterfly in 1:56.54, just 0.26 seconds shy of his own national record. Chen Yin from Hebei Province and Zheng Huazhang from Liaoning came second and third.

Wu, 18, was the sixth-place finisher in the event at the Athens Olympic Games. "It's a pity, because I expected to top my national record. But I choked on water at the 150-meter turn, which made me lose my rhythm," said Wu.

Wang Haibo, from Zhejiang Province, trailed pacesetter Zeng Qiliang through most of the men's 100-meter breaststroke, but surged ahead to win in 1:02.88. The 28-year-old Zeng had to settle for the silver with a time of 1:03.22.

Chen Xiujun from Guangdong Province snatched the women's 50-meter backstroke in 28.64, beating Asian record holder Gao Chang by 0.01, while Zhou Cong from Jiangsu took the gold in the men's 800-meter freestyle in 8:11.56.

(Xinhua News Agency April 18, 2005)