Olympic silver medalist Zhang Lin took the limelight on the third day of the Chinese Swimming Championships here on Tuesday as he smashed a new national record in the men's 200 meters freestyle and ranked No. 1 in the world this year.

Zhang, 400m freestyle winner at the Beijing Olympic Games, led the 200m all through the way, winning in one minute 45.83 seconds, 1.70 seconds faster than his own national record.

Sun Yang of Zhejiang and Jiang Haiqi of Shanghai came to second and third.

The 22-year-old Zhang said: "I had an ankle operation last November. I'm now not at my peak form though my 400m and 200m free all placed top on the world rankings. However, the ranking does not mean I'm the fastest."

In the women's 100m backstroke, Zhao Jing stormed home in 59.62, which can be ranked No. 1 in the world, beating Chen Yanyan of Guangdong 1:00.21 and Gao Chang of Shandong 1:00.75, respectively.

Zhao, a medley relay member of the Chinese bronze medal team atthe Olympic Games, said: "I need to improve my turn technique since I had a terrible turn in the 50m mark."

The 24-year-old Qi Hui of Chinese Navy lifted her personal best in the women's 100m breaststroke in 1:06.85, 0.01 shy of the national record which was set by Athens Olympic champion Luo Xuejuan. Ji Liping of Shanghai and Chen Huijia of Zhejiang came in 1:07.29 and 1:07.47.

The men's 100m backstroke title came to Cheng Feiyi of Liaoningin 54.99 as Diao Jigong of Chines Navy and He Jianbin of Guangdong received the silver and bronze.

Olympic champion Liu Zige and runner-up Jiao Liuyang will meet in the 200m butterfly on April 8 while men's 200m butterfly, women's 200m freestyle and men's 50m breaststroke finals take place on Wednesday.

(Xinhua News Agency April 8, 2009)