World champion Luo upstaged by teen compatriot
Fourteen-year-old Wang Qun pulled off the biggest upset in the swimming pool last night when she defeated China's world and Olympic champion Luo Xuejuan in the women's 100-metres breaststroke final.
Although her winning time of one minute and 8.56 seconds was far from eye-catching, it was good enough to beat compatriot Luo, who recorded an unimpressive 1:09.14 to finish second at the Olympic Aquatic Centre.
Sayaka Nakamura from Japan was third in 1:10.76, while Hong Kong's Yip Tse-wa and Suen Ka-yi finished seventh and eighth.
In the men's races, Chinese swimmers set another two Asian records. Ouyang Kunpeng, who broke two Asian records in the 100m and 200m butterfly at the National Games in Nanjing, made it a hat-trick when he bettered his own Asian best in the 50m butterfly with a time of 25.18 seconds, far eclipsing his previous best of 25.53.
'I knew I had a mission to complete in Macau - to break the Asian record in the 50m and I am really happy that I made it tonight,' said Ouyang, who is widely regarded as a China medal hopeful for the 2008 Beijing Games.
The other Asian record came in the 4x100m freestyle relay. Cai Li, Huang Shaohua, Liu Yu and Chen Zuo combined to set a new Asian best of 3:20.52. Japan came second and South Korea third.
China, as expected, continued their dominance in the pool as they won seven out of eight events last night.
The only non-Chinese gold medal went to Daisuke Kimura of Japan, who cruised to victory in the men's 200m breaststroke.
China's Xue Ruipeng came second with a time of 2:16.18, while another Japanese swimmer Genki Imamura came third in 2:17.61.
