Swimmers from all across the globe have set up four new world
records at the short course Arena World Cup in Berlin, making the
top athletes more ambitious for the Beijing Olympic Games.
The most shining star in the two-day event is Swedish Stefan
Nystrand, who splashed to two world records on Saturday and Sunday
receptively.
On Sunday, Nystrand bettered the world record in the men's
50-meter freestyle by clocking 20.93 seconds, and a day earlier, a
world record in the 100m freestyle by finishing with 45.83
seconds.
The 26-year-old said his objective in the upcoming Beijing
Olympic Games is to bring home with two gold medals.
"It's my aim to keep on improving, especially with regard to the
Olympic Games next year. I would like to capture two gold medals
there," he said.
The veteran competed at the Olympic Games in 2000 and 2004, but
his best performance was the fourth place.
For the women's events, Dutch Marleen Veldhuis updated the
records she herself would not have imagined.
On Saturday, Veldhuis set up the world record in the women's
50-meter freestyle by clocking 23.58 seconds, lowering down old
record by 0.01 second.
On Sunday, the 28-year-old veteran marked a new European record
of women's 100m freestyle.
The last world record was inked after Brazilian Thiago Pereira
on Sunday, who clocked 1:53.14 in the men's 200m individual
medley.
Pereira also won the gold medal in the men's 400m medley a day
earlier, just shy of the world record by 0.26 second.
"After the good result in yesterday's 400m individual medley, I
narrowly missed the world record, I knew I could attack the world
record in the 200m today," he said after the race on Sunday.
South Korea's Park Tae-Hwan also seized two golds over the past
two days.
Park clocked 14:34.39 in the men's 1,500m freestyle to claim the
gold medal.
Despite exhaustion from the long race, Park participate in the
men's 200m freestyle just five minutes after his first race. He
finished with 1:42.22 to seal his second gold medal.
"It's no problem for Tae Hwan to compete on such a high level in
two successive races," said Park's coach Seok Ki Park.
"We have not decided yet if Tae Hwan is going to compete in the
200m freestyle at the Beijing Olympic Games. Our priorities are the
400m and 1500 freestyles," he added.
Comparing the Berlin event to the previous short-course series,
Chinese coach Liu Haitao told Xinhua that world swimmers
demonstrated high level performance in Berlin.
"The performance in Berlin is the best, quite a lot of top
swimmer gathered here," he said.
Liu said the competition for the Beijing Olympic Games will be
fierce.
"Everybody is trying his effort, but for us, we are doing our
own work," he added.
(Xinhua News Agency November 19, 2007)