BUSAN, SOUTH KOREA, Oct. 1. IT used to be said that the German Democratic Republic was pretty good at making women into men but they could never quite
master making men into supermen.
Perhaps the Chinese swimming authorities are taking a leaf from the old GDR book, or perhaps they've finally found how to develop their men's program into a status comparable to their world-class women's team.
In either case, the Chinese men flexed their muscles here on the second day of the 2002 Asian Games and came away with a pair of golds and impressive performances, to go along with the three golds their women's team won this evening.
China's most impressive men's win was in the 200 butterfly, where national record-holder, 15 year-old Wu Peng (1:58.49 from this year's Games' Trials last spring) upset Japan's Asian record-holder Takashi Yamamoto, 1:56.63-1:57.18. The latter's teammate, Yosuke Matsuda. won the bronze (1:57.26).
Yamamoto was third at last month's Pan Pacs behind Americans Tom Malchow and Michael Phelps in a pr, national- and Asian Record 1:55.57, That swim ranks
him fifth-fastest performer globally for the year.
Wu's winning time slices his national record by nearly two seconds and ranks him eighth globally — one of the highest individual world- ranking a Chinese man has ever attained.
The situation was similar in the 200 free where China's Liu Yu raced to an Asian record 1:49.29 to take the gold. The old record was 1:49.73 by Japan's Daisuke Hosakawa from the semis of last year's World Championships in Fukuoka.
Liu's old pr was 1:49.77 from the Chinese National Games in Guangzhou last November, which was also the old Chinese national record.
Second was Japan's Yoshihiro Okumura in a pr-NR 1:49.36 with teammate Yosuke Ichikawa (1:50.66) taking the bronze.
Liu's time ranks him 23rd globally and Okumura is 24th.
* * * * *
On the women's side, China swept all three events. Defending 100 breast World Champion Luo Xuejuan won her sepcialty in an Asian/national-record 1:06.84 — history's second-berst performance. Teammate Qi Hui was seecond (1:08.35, just off her pr 1:08.27 from last year) and she then returned to take gold in the 200 IM (2:13.84).
The world record in the 100 breast belongs to now-retired South Africa's Penny Heyns, who went the current global standard of 1:06.52 in the prelims
of the Pan Pac Championships at the Sydney Olympic Pool in August of 1999.
That broke her old record of 1:06.95 from the Janet Evans Invitational at the USC/McDonald's Olympic Pool in Los Angeles a month earlier. That time was until tonight's swim by Luo history's second-fastest performance, which the Chinese woman's winning 1:06.84 eclipses.
Qi's medley pr is a 2:12.46 from Fukuoka, which earned her the bronze medal. She, of course, is also world record-holder in the 200 breast with her 2:21.99 from last year's World Championship Trials in Ashan in April.
The world record in the 200 IM is 2:09.72 by China's Wu Yanyan from the 1997 National games in Shanghai that November, but suspicions abound about the
legitimacy of that record. Wu retired suddenly just before the Asian Games opened.
China capped off its record-breaking night by racing to a world-leading 7:58.47 to Japan's NR 8:02.76 in the women's 4 x 200m freestytle relay.
— Bill Bell
14th Asian Games
Busan, South Korea
September 29 – October 14, 2002
SWIMMING RESULTS
DAY TWO: October 1, 2002
Women's 200m Individual Medley
Heats Rank Lane Name Country Record
F 1 3 QI Hui People's Rep. of China
2:13.94
2 5 ZHOU Ya Fei People's Rep. of China
2:14.67
3 4 FUJINO Maiko Japan
2:16.37
4 1 YEO Wei Ling Joscelin Singapore
2:18.02
5 7 NAM Yoo Sun Korea
2:20.67
6 6 SATO Ayane Japan
2:20.69
7 2 LEE Sun A Korea
2:21.75
8 8 TSAI Hiu Wai Sherry Hong Kong, China
2:24.58
Women's 100m Breaststroke
Heats Rank Lane Name Country Record
F 1 4 LUO Xuejuan People's Rep. of China
1:06.84 Asian Record
2 3 QI Hui People's Rep. of China
1:08.35
3 6 KAWANABE Fumiko Japan
1:10.11
4 5 ISODA Junko Japan
1:10.42
5 2 KU Hyo Jin Korea
1:11.11
6 7 CHO A Ra Korea
1:12.06
7 8 TEO Wei Min Nicolette Singapore
1:13.48
1 GUERRERO Jenny Philippines
1:14.30
Women's 4 x 200m Freestyle Relay Final
Heat Rank Lane Country Name Record
F 1 4 People's Rep. of China
ZHU Ying Wen
TANG Jingzhi
XU Yanwei
YANG Yu
7:58.46 Asian Games Record
2 5 Japan
MITA Maki
NAGAI Tomoko
YAMADA Sachiko
URABE Norie
8:02.76 NR
3 3 Korea
HA Eun Ju
KIM Ye Sul
KIM Hyun Joo
SHIM Min Ji
8:19.62 NR
4 6 Thailand
CHOOMPOL Chorkaew
TANTINITI Piyaporn
VORATHAMRONG Chonlathorn
TACHAKITTIRANAN Pilin
8:33.42
5 7 Singapore
BOUVRON Christel
CHAN U-nice
TEO Wei Min Nicolette
YEO Wei Ling Joscelin
8:37.07
6 2 Hong Kong, China
KONG Yan Kay Flora
TANG Hing Ting
PANG Shuk Mui
TSAI Hiu Wai Sherry
8:41.32
7 1 Pakistan
KHAN Kiran
KARIM Mahira
TAJWAR Ayesha
ABDUL WAHID Sana
10:17.29
Men's 200m Freestyle
Heats Rank Lane Name Country Record
A 1 6 LIU Yu People's Rep. of China
1:49.29 Asian Record
2 4 OKUMURA Yoshihiro Japan
1:49.36 NR
3 3 ICHIKAWA Yosuke Japan
1:50.66
4 8 HAN Kyu Chul Korea
1:50.97
5 2 MOLINA Miguel Philippines
1:52.99
6 5 KO Yun Ho Korea
1:53.24
7 1 YU Cheng People's Rep. of China
1:53.91
8 7 TAN Lee Yu Gary Singapore
1:54.25
B 1 4 WU Nien Pin Chinese Taipei
1:53.60
2 3 VASILEV Peter Uzbekistan
1:55.85
3 5 CHAY Jung Jun Mark Singapore
1:55.93
4 6 PHUANGTHONG Dulyarit Thailand
1:56.33
5 2 MASRI Mhd Naeem Syrian Arab Republic
1:57.87
6 7 FUNG Hok Him Hong Kong, China
1:58.37
7 1 ABUYOUSUF Anas Qatar
2:05.58
8 8 DAABOUL Omar Lebanon
2:08.87
Men's 200m Butterfly
Heats Rank Lane Name Country Record
F 1 3 WU Peng People's Rep. of China
1:56.63 NR, Asian Games Record
2 4 YAMAMOTO Takashi Japan
1:57.18
3 5 MATSUDA Takeshi Japan
1:57.26
4 7 JIN Hao People's Rep. of China
1:59.54
5 6 YOO Jeong Nam Korea
2:00.77
6 2 CHO Jae Hyun Korea
2:02.78
7 1 TSENG Cheng Hua Chinese Taipei
2:03.87
8 8 KWOK Kin Ming Mark Hong Kong, China
2:03.91
SYNCHRONIZED SWIMMING Solo Free Routine Final
1 JPN
TACHIBANA Miya
98.000 49.000
2 KOR
JANG Yoon Kyung
95.500 47.750
3 CHN
LI Zhen
94.833 47.417
4 KAZ
KARIMOVA Aliya
89.166 44.583
5 UZB
MOGAEVA Darya
85.333 42.667
6 MAC
WONG Wai Kei
80.833 40.417
Water Polo Preliminary Round
Japan
3 2 1 2 8
People's Rep. of China
1 1 3 2 7
Islamic Republic of Iran
4 3 1 5 13
Singapore
0 1 2 0 3