Wu swims to nation's first Worlds medal
Wu Peng of China poses with his silver medal during the medal ceremony for the men's 200m butterfly swimming final at the World Aquatics Championship in Melbourne yesterday. REUTERS |
China has a young and inexperienced team in Melbourne and Wu, the Asian Games champion, was their best hope.
He didn't disappoint, holding off Russian Nikolay Skvortsov to finish second in 1:55.13, three seconds behind the American star. Although his achievement was largely unnoticed as the aquatics center was rocked by Phelps' stunning performance, Wu made a little history for China's swimming team by equalling the best result achieved by a man in the competition.
"It was really difficult to get a silver because all the swimmers apart from Michael were so close," he said after the race.
Wu won a bronze medal at the Montreal World Championships two years ago in the same event. He came to Melbourne aiming for a medal but said he was stunned by the fast improvement in the world swimming standards in such a short space of time - he would not even have made the final in Melbourne with his bronze-winning Montreal time.
"The improvement is really obvious, but it inspires me to work harder."
He said he was trying not to think too much about Phelps as he looks ahead to the Beijing Olympics next year.
"I'm pretty happy. The Doha Asian Games and the world championships were scheduled very close to each other, I haven't been very well and I didn't get to train a lot," said the 19-year-old.
"I knew he'd break some records here but I never thought that he'd break so many, which is just unbelievable.
"I need to keep pushing and improving myself, and not think too much about him because the athletes who finished behind me are all very strong swimmers.
"I'll definitely be swimming in this event (in Beijing), but there is no guarantee of a medal.
"I need to keep improving myself and need to work hard especially on my turns and my jump starts.
"I've been training hard and I want to be able to stand on the podium at the Olympics with a medal. I'm following my dreams, and not doing it for anyone else."
Wu also revealed that he will leave for the United States for training in May.
AFP and China Daily
(China Daily 03/29/2007 page22)
