Michael Phelps competed his own race in the men's 200 meters
butterfly event here on Wednesday. But Chinese swimmer Wu Peng was
encouraged to lead the following group.
Phelps, the double world champion and Olympic title holder in
the event, showed his overwhelming dominance by slicing 1.62 second
off the world record of one minute and 53.71, which was updated by
him just one month ago.
"Phelps was so fast. I even began to doubt myself during the
race," said Wu, who was dropped behind in almost three body
lengths, but still picked up the silver in 1:55.13.
"I knew he was in extremely good form and I had anticipated that
he was ready to break the world record," said Wu. "But when Isaw he
lead by so big a margin, I still failed to control my pace for a
while. "
The 19-year-old Wu admitted that he felt a little bit frustrated
for being drop behind in more than three seconds by the American
wunderkind. However, he was satisfied with his second personal best
result and was aiming to confirm his leading position in the second
group after Phelps.
"The result was not bad. After all, the World Championships was
too close to the Doha Asian Games and I didn't train well ahead of
the meeting."
Wu improved his personal best to one minute and 54.91 seconds
with which he bravely defended his title at the Asian Games last
December.
During the warming up for the real combat in Melbourne, Wu
suffered a lymphatic inflame brought by a wisdom tooth.
"Beating Phelps won't be a realistic goal," said Wu in the press
conference. "I'll just concentrate on improving myself and try to
lead in the second group."
As the most aggressive male swimmer in the Chinese squad. Wu
concluded his Olympic debut with a sixth place in the event in
Athens 2004.
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.
"The competition in the second group is very tough, the times of
the swimmers there are very close," said Wu.
Wu will focus on the 200 meters butterfly, which has been
decided as the only event he will participate at the Beijing
Olympics. He will go to the United States for training in May and
hope for a closer position to Phelps.
(Xinhua News Agency March 29, 2007)