Preview: Chinese swimmers Qi and Wu to be tested at World Championships

Chinese swimmers Qi Hui and Wu Peng are going to find out their outlooks leading to the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games in a dip of the pool at the upcoming Melbourne World Championships.

Since breaststroke ace Luo Xuejuan retired on January 29 due to heart problems, Qi Hui has become the flag bearer of Chinese swimming squad heading to the 12th World Championships

The 22-year-old Qi is slated to participate in the women's 200 meters breaststroke, 200 and 400 meters individual medley events at the World Championships to kick off on March 25.

Also a breaststroke specialist, Qi has never reached the level of Luo in accomplishments.

Being the most shining star of Chinese swimming in recent years, Luo clinched the women's 50 and 100 meters breaststroke events at both 2001 and 2003 world championships.

Besides, the 23-year-old won China's only swimming gold at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games.

As for Qi, she was highly expected to collect a medal at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, but settled with a fourth place in the 200 meters breaststroke event. Four years later, she failed to mount the podium again after finishing sixth in the event.

Her best result at long-course World Championships is a silver in 2001.

Qi didn't show up at the 2005 World Championships in Montreal for taking part in the Universiade. Although she grabbed a gold in the 200 meters individual medley, she missed the gold in her major event the 200 meters breaststroke. What's more, she was even disqualified in the 100 meters breaststroke preliminaries due to foul.

Now, a more versatile Qi is honing for her third World Championships with three golds collected at the Doha Asian Games last December. Her winning results in the 200 meters breaststroke, 200 meters individual medley and 400 meters individual medley was placed second, third and fourth respectively in the 2006 world rankings.

At the same time, Qi's teammate Wu Peng is aiming at a medal in the men's 200 meters butterfly event which has been decided as his only event at the Beijing Olympics.

The 19-year-old Wu is the most aggressive male swimmer in the Chinese squad. In 2004, He concluded his Olympic debut with a sixth place in the 200 meters butterfly event in Athens.

One year later, the teenager grabbed a bronze in the event in Montreal, which was the second ever medal obtained by a Chinese male swimmer at long-course world championships.

But Wu knew that he was a little bit lucky as American wunderkind Michael Phelps, looking for swimming more in freestyle, gave up the chance to defend his title.

"I am looking forward to a medal," said Wu who suffered a lymphatic inflame brought by a wisdom tooth during the warming up, "But the most important thing is to get closer to Michael Phelps."

Wu improved his personal best to one minutes and 54.91 seconds with which he bravely defend his title at the Doha Asian Games. But the six times Olympic gold medallist Phelps then updated the world record of 200 meters butterfly to one minutes and 53.71 this February.

Although Zhang Yadong, head coach of the Chinese swimming team claimed that the team set out to grab one gold at the World Championships, aces from the other squads won't grant it easily.

Phelps is back to his pursuit in the 200 meters butterfly. Meanwhile, Japanese Takeshi Matsuda and Pawel Korzeniowski of Poland will scramble for being the closest follower of the prodigy.

The breaststroke expert Leisel Jones is unlikely to be defeated in her domain, as the "lethal" Aussie updated the women's 100 meters breaststroke to one minute and 5.09 seconds, the 200 meters to two seconds 20.54 seconds last year.

Furthermore, both American Katie Hoff and Zimbabwean Kirsty Coventry are masterhands in four strokes. The two made one-two finishes in the two women's individual medley events at last World Championships.

Besides the one gold collecting expectation, Zhang hopes that his younger pupils could make a splash in Melbourne.

The 16-year-old Zhang Jing is a backstroke specialist. She claimed victory in the women's 50 meters at last year's Doha Asian Games and notched up a silver and a bronze there in the 200 meters and 100 meters events respectively. However, the Japanese rivals such as Hanae Ito and Reiko Nakamura will certainly keep alert.

The 100 meters world record holder American Natalie Coughlin will also try her best.

Jiao Liuyang, 15-year-old, dashed to win the 200 meters butterfly gold at the Asian Championships last March. Her result of two minutes and 8.54 seconds was a new championships record and ranked eighth in the world last season.

However, freestyle experts Yang Jieqiang has to delay her World Championships debut as the 16-year-old received a surgery recently.

The 15-year-old breaststroker Wang Qun was also sidelined as head coach Zhang believed the successor of Olympic champion Luo had participated in too many events last year and limited for lack of systemic training.

The Chinese swimming failed to bring back any gold from Montreal two years ago, as Luo sprained her left ankle about 20 days ahead of the competition and had an allergic reaction after the injection for easing the pain.

Teenager Gao Chang collected the one and only silver of the team in the women's 50 meters backstroke event.

The 44-member Chinese swimming squad to Melbourne includes 21 world championships rookies. They have to show their potentials in the intensive pool before getting opportunities to swim the Olympic Games in front of home crowd.

Source: Xinhua