Wu Peng expects 3rd Olympic Games

SHAOXING, China - After dominating the first 180m of the men's 200m butterfly final at the Swimming national championships Monday, Wu Peng was surprisingly surpassed by Chen Yin in the last 20m and had to settle for a silver medal.

As the national championships serves as an important Olympic qualifier in China, the silver could not satisfy the runner-up of the 2007 Melbourne worlds, who is expecting his third Olympic Games this July in London.

"I'm not satisfied with the result today," said the 24-year-old Zhejiang native. "It's not as good as I had expected. The first 100m was OK, but the second half was not good."

"I was out of strength at the last," he added. "I really did my best."

Chen Yin of Hebei, defending champion of the event, timed 1:56.14 to win the gold, which is the fifth best result in the world so far this year. Wu trailed in 1:57.16, which is also the sixth best result in the world. The bronze went to Shi Feng of Shanghai, who finished in 1:54.87.

The famous Chinese swimmer had trained alone in America and just arrived China on March 28.

Although losing to Chen was disappointing, Wu didn't lose his confidence.

"I accepted the result and I will not lose my confidence," he said. "After the ups and downs in recent years, I changed a lot. I used to care too much about the result, but now I just want to enjoy myself in the competitions."

Talking about the London Games, Wu said he had learned a lot from the previous two Olympics.

"After the Athens and Beijing Games, I felt I grow up a lot," he said. "I hope I can stand on the podiom at London. I will keep training hard and communicate with my coach to make more improvement. It's about 120 days away to the Olympic Games and I still need to improve a lot."

Wu will go back to train in Ameirca after the national championships. "I will go to America on April 18 and focus on the training," he said.