TIANJIN, Sept. 1-- Teenage sensation Li Bingjie of Hebei gave the full-house audience a big surprise as she timed in an Asian record in the women's 400m freestyle at the 13th Chinese National Games here on Friday. Li, the 800m runner-up and 400m bronze medalist of freestyle in the FINA World Championships in Budapest last month, dominated the 400 event here to clock in four minutes and 1.75 seconds for an Asian record. The previous Asian mark of 4:02.35 was set by Chen Qian in the 2009 National Games. Zhang Yuhan of the Chinese Army delegation (PLA) took the silver in 4:04.66 and Bi Wenxin of Shandong came in third with a time of 4:05.57. "It's an unexpected result as I just returned from the worlds one month ago. My coach helped me a lot to improve my physical training, and I just hope to compete in more competition for experience," said Li, who also renewed the women's 800m freestyle Asian record to 8:15.46 in Budapest in July. The 15-year-old, nicknamed Lady Sun Yang by China's swimming fans, claimed the women's 4X200m freestyle relay silver together with teammates Ai Yanhan, Zhang Yuhan and Lui Zixuan besides her own 800m silver and 400m bronze. "I will try my best to get more records and more medals. I don't mind I was given a nickname as Lady Sun Yang because we are all long-distance freestyle swimmers. I wish to win more for China together with Sun and all other Chinese swimmers," Li said. |