China's top freestyler Zhang Lin shattered the national record of men's 1500 meters freestyle with 14 minutes 55.98 seconds at the Olympic trials in Shaoxing on Saturday.

Zhang managed to shave more than three seconds off his own national record of 14:59.02 and became the world's fourth fastest man in the long-distance race this year.

"I wanted to swim under 14 minutes 50 seconds and break the Asian record, but it was the last race at the trials, and I've been tired out," Zhang said.

"I think I'll have to improve my pace," he added.

Zhang's result is still 0.95 seconds slower than the Asian record of 14:55.03 owned by his archrival South Korea's Park Tae-Hwan. The world record of the event is kept by Australia's Grant Hackett at 14:34.56.

Zhang, 21, also downed the national record of the 400 meters freestyle at the trials with 3:44.97, which could place third in the world.

(Xinhua News Agency April 5, 2008)