Chinese swimmer Wu Peng finished in 1 min 54.24 secs to win the gold in the men's 200-meter butterfly at the World Cup short-course swimming competition at East Meadow, New York on Friday.

Wu dominated the event and beat Russian Anatoly Polyakov who finished a distant second in a time of 1:56.35. American Jayme Cramer finished third in 1:56.48.

In the men's 400-meter individual medley, American Michael Phelps set a national record of 4:03.99. He went on to win the 100m individual medley in 53.21 secs.

Phelps, 20, won six gold medals at the Athens Olympics, but was a disappointing seventh in the 100m freestyle event at the world championships last summer in Montreal.

Luca Marin of Italy was the silver medallist in the 400m race with a time of 4:07.76, while Thiago Pereira of Brazil finished second in the 100m medley with a time of 53.49 secs.

Rachel Komisarz, part of the US Olympics squad in 2004, won the women's 100m butterfly event in 58.33 secs. She also finished second in the 200m freestyle after Josefin Lillhage of Sweden?who touched the wall first in 1:56.73.

Brendan Hansen of the US dominated the 200m breaststroke event, winning it in a time of 2:08.30. A 2004 Olympic gold medallist, Hansen easily beat Scott Usher, who posted a 2:09.48 second-place finish.

Hansen's compatriot, Randall Bal, a former world champion in the 50m backstroke, won his fourth 100m backstroke title in a time of 50.92 secs.

Another US swimmer, Neil Walker topped Filippo Mangini of Italy in the 100m freestyle race, with a time of 40.77 secs. Mangini won second place in 47.81 secs.

In other results, Tara Kirk, the reigning US Open champ in the women's 100m breaststroke, won her race in 1:05.29; Ariana Kukors easily captured the women's 200m individual medley event in 2:09.84; Therese Alshammar of Sweden won the women's 50m freestyle in 24.32; Caitlin Andrew won the women's 50m backstroke with a time of 27.84 secs.

(Xinhua News Agency February 5, 2006)