Men's 400 meters medley winner, Ryan Lochte should be grateful that Yi Shewen is a girl and as such unable to compete against him if her gold winning performance on Saturday evening to win the women's 400 meter medley is anything to go by.

16-year-old Yi set a new world record of 4.28.43 in doing so

Not only did she do that, but she swam her penultimate lap of the race (the breaststroke) faster than the legendary Michael Phelps had done earlier in the day, while her last 50 meters of freestyle was actually faster than Lochte's in his gold medal winning display.

The youngster was clearly overwhelmed by her win.

"I am so excited, it is like a dream," she said. "I am excited now, but I can't think that much about the future," added Yi, who explained she had suffered from pre-Games nerves.

"Before the Games, I didn't sleep well. I normally get nervous, but it doesn't affect my performance," she commented.

Hers was the second gold medal for China on a Saturday which saw them take two of the four gold medals on offer in the pool and the women's 400 meter followed a historic 400 freestyle in which Sun Yan became the first Chinese man to win gold.

"It is a big step for Chinese swimming," said Yi, who believes both her and Sun's success is down to good training methods and sheer hard work.

"I think that we have good and scientific training: that is why we progress. I'm very lucky because from childhood we have trained in a very scientific way, so it is not difficult for me to work hard."

"I am excited. It must be because I have been training really hard recently, that is why I got such a good result," she explained. 

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