Ouyang Kunpeng renewed the men's 50 meters backstroke Asian record at the Chinese Spring Swimming Championships in Harbin, capital city of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province on Sunday.

In the 50m backstroke semifinals, Ouyang topped the qualifiers with a time of 25.53 seconds, slicing the previous mark 25.67 held by a Malaysian swimmer.

Ouyang said: "I'm not surprised with the result. I swam faster than this during training.

Hope I can break it again in tomorrow's final."

Olympian Wu Peng claimed title in the men's 200m butterfly in one minute 56.54 seconds, 0.26 seconds shy of his own national record. Chen Yin from Hebei and Zheng Huazhang from Liaoning came second and third.

Wu, 18, sixth place finisher in the event at the Athens Olympic Games, said: "It's a pity that I expected to better my national record. However, I was choked by water at the 150m turn which made me lose my rhythm."

Though tracing pace setter Zeng Qiliang most of the time, Wang Haibo from Zhejiang surged to win the men's 100m breaststroke in 1:02.88. Zeng had to take the silver in 1:03.22.

The 28-year-old Zeng, runner-up in 1998 world championships, said: "I am too old in front of young swimmers born in the 80s."

In other two non-Olymic events' finals, Chen Xiujun from Guangdong snatched the women's 50m backstroke in 28.64, beating the Asian record holder Gao Chang by 0.01 second while Zhou Cong from Jiangsu took the gold in the men's 800m freestyle in 8;11.56.