(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-03-31 15:32

SHAOXING - Wu Peng, one of China's top butterflyers, said he was well poised to break the Asian record of the men's 200 meters butterfly at an Olympic trials competition on Monday.

In the men's 100 meters butterfly, Wu touched the wall in 52.99 seconds, only after the event's Asian record-holder Zhou Jiawei, who finished in 52.27 seconds.

"I have not swum under 53 seconds since the 2005 City Games. Several times, I wanted to meet the goal, but failed," Wu said.

"The morning score was better than last night's heat, and I think I'm already adjusted to competing finals in the morning now. There should be no problem for me to break the Asian record of the 200 meter butterfly on Wednesday," he said.

Wu's personal best in the 200 butterfly stands at one minute 54.91 seconds, and the event's Asian record was kept at 1:54.56 seconds by  Japanese veteran Takashi Yamamoto.

The 21-year-old swimmer has been one of the Chinese swimming squad's best hopes to take home an Olympic medal at the Beijing Games.

Zhou Jiawei, who finished the men's 100 meters butterfly in 52.27 seconds, failed his own expectation before the match to renew his Asian record of 52.19 seconds. "But I'm still glad about the result. That was not bad at all," he said.

The gold medal of the women's 200 meters freestyle went to Pang Jiaying, who clocked 58.32 seconds.

The Asian record holder of the women's 100 meters butterfly Zhou Yafei placed third in her event, clocking 59:28 seconds. Zhou complained she had an acute shoulder ache relapse just a week before the competition, which pulled her more than a second away from her record of 58.20 seconds. The title of the event went to Xu Yanwei, who touched the wall in 58.68 seconds.

In Monday's competitions, Liu Weijia won the men's 400 meters individual medley with four minutes 19.77 seconds, and the Shanghai women's team claimed the gold of the 4X100 meters medley relay in four minutes 5.47 seconds.