(Beijing, February. 3) -- Qi Hui and Zhang Lin both claimed victories, and Stefan Nystrand was unrivalled on day four of the "Good Luck Beijing" 2008 Swimming China Open. Six finals were staged Sunday morning, with Germany and China taking two titles each, while Sweden and Japan each had one title.
In the women's 400m freestyle final, staged first, German veteran Annika Lurz took an early lead from the first 50m and eventually clinched the victory with a time of 4:10.60. Chinese rising star You Meihong finished second by a margin of 1.85, and Polish veteran Otylia Jedrzejczak came in third.
In the men's 100m freestyle final, Swedish veteran Stefan Nystrand carried off the title with a time of 48.94 expectedly, and Nicholas Dias Dos Santos of Brazil and Huang Shaohua of China finished second and third, respectively.
In the women's 100m butterfly final, attention was fixed on Qi Hui and Jung Seul Ki of Korea. In the end, Qi won with a time of 1:09.24, a narrow margin of 0.06 over Jung. Qi's compatriot Sun Ye finished third with a time of 1:09.71.
In the men's 200m breaststroke final, Tateishi Ryo of Japan, who had taken the title of the men's 100m breaststroke, got first place with a time of 2:13.61. Hungarian veteran Daniel Gyurta finished second by a margin of 0.37, and Slawomir Kuczko of Poland finished third.
In the men's 1,500m freestyle final, Zhang Lin clinched his third gold in the open with a time of 15:05.57. Dragos Coman of Romania finished second by a margin of 29.82.
In the women's 4x100m free relay, the German team, consisting of Britta Steffen, Daniela Goetz, Daniela Schreiber and Annika Lurz, was crowned with a time of 3:41.07. Germany is the world record holder of this event. The Chinese team, consisting of Xu Yanwei, Zhu Wenrui, Li Ji and Zhu Qianwei, finished second by a margin of 7.07.
The heats of five events -- the men's 50m freestyle, women's 200m individual medley, men's 200 individual medley, women's 200m backstroke and men's 100 backstroke -- will begin at 6:30 Sunday evening.
The "Good Luck Beijing" 2008 Swimming China Open will be held at the National Aquatics Center from January 31 to February 5.
(Credit: The Official Website of "Good Luck Beijing" Sport Events)
