Taking the opening gold and breaking the Asian record, newly-crowned Asian Winter Games champion Wang Fei said she still has potential to tap.

In the battle vying for the first gold of the 6th Games, Chinese Wang, among the last two to compete, clocked in four minutes and 13.08 seconds to win the women's 3,000m speedskating, beating the previous Asian record of 4:15.86 set up by Japanese Nani Nemoto in 2005

"I am really happy to win the first gold of the Games for China and to win it in front of the home audience," said the 24-year-oldWang, who grabbed the all-round title in the Asian Championships here early this month.

"But I sort of expected such a time because I had done better before," said Wang from the neighboring Heilongjiang province.

Last year, Wang trained in Canada where she said she once clocked a time around 4:03.00.

Wang's remarks echoed with her coach Liang Linhua who once said Chinese skaters still can do better in the long distance.

"We have to make improvement on techniques so that the skaters can create better results. I think they have potentials," Liang once said.

Japanese Masako Hozumi, who eventually finished second in 4:15.42, was the first to shatter the record set up by her compatriot Nani Nemoto in 2005. She competed in group three before Wang's group six competition.

Wang said she actually welcomed the pressure brought about by Hozumi's performance.

"Hozumi skated to an Asian best time which gave me certain pressure. Since I have determined to win here today, I think the pressure pushed me to skate faster," she said.

Source:Xinhua