China
Top 10 stories of China sports in 2009
(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-12-31 09:35
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Freestyle swimmer Zhang Lin made an historic breakthrough for China when he won the 800m freestyle at the World Championships in Rome in July, demolishing Australian great Grant Hackett's world record in the process.
His victory made him the first Chinese male swimmer to win a World Championships title.
"My biggest goal is the 2012 London Games. I hope I won't miss the gold by another 0.58 seconds," said Zhang, who settled for silver in Beijing last August, beaten by Park Tae-hwan of South Korea by that slim margin.
"I hope through my years of effort I can make up for my regrets at the Beijing Games."
Zhang was not the only Chinese swimmer to stir up the pool this year. Women's butterfly swimmer Liu Zige, the Beijing Olympic champion, set a world record of 2:01.81 at China's National Games in October and broke the short-course record with 2:00.78 in Berlin, Germany, a month later.
(2)Athletics: What a comeback
After being absent from competition for 13 months, China's star hurdler, Liu Xiang, reclaimed the spotlight with a strong comeback.
The country's biggest track-and-field star racked up three victories and a runners-up finish in the four events he participated in over the past three months.
A surprising time of 13.15 started Liu's comeback run at the Shanghai Golden Grand Prix in September, where he was narrowly beaten by US veteran Terrence Trammell.
A month later, he clocked 13.34 to win his third China Games title and continued his good form at the Asian Championships last month with a victory in 13.50. The former Olympic and world champion capped his return with an easy victory at the East Asian Games in Hong Kong in December.
"After undergoing surgery in December last year, I didn't think this year could be so smooth I didn't know what kind of results I could gain," Liu said.
What's was just as pleasing to China's track-and-field fans this year was that even without Liu, the country performed well at the Berlin World Championships in August. Spearheaded by a gold medal from women's marathoner Bai Xue, the Chinese team exceeded expectations, earning one gold, one silver and two bronze medals.
