Pang Jiaying won China's first women's swimming medal at the Beijing Olympic Games Wednesday.

She took the bronze in the women's 200m freestyle, in 1 min 55.05 sec, finishing behind Federica Pellegrini of Italy and Sara Isakovic of Slovenia. All three bettered the world record.

"I'm very satisfied with my result today, it was beyond my expectation," said Pang, who finished the seventh at the Athens four years ago.

Pang Jiaying

"I was in good form today and I set no goal for myself before the race.

"My coach told me that an eighth finish was okay. So I was really relaxed and felt no pressure at all.

"I swam fast in the first half at my own pace, I'm so happy with the time," said Pang, after bagging China's second swimming medal of the Games.

Zhang Lin had won a silver medal in the men's 400m freestyle on Sunday.

Pang also entered today's 100m freestyle semifinals, along with teammate Zhu Yingwen.

Both clocked identical times of 54.01. Pang will swim in the second semifinal, in Lane 6, while Zhu will be in the first, also in Lane 6.

China can expect to win more medals today. Liu Zige and Jiao Liuyang entered the 200m butterfly final, as the fastest and third-fastest qualifiers.

They will have to hold off Australia's Jessicah Schipper and Poland's Otylia Jedrzejczak in order to get gold.

"I hope to see two national flags being raised after the final and I also hope to hear people singing the national anthem," head coach Zhang Yadong said.

Wu Peng finished in a dead heat for fourth with Moss Burmester of New Zealand in the men's 200m butterfly, won by Michael Phelps. Wu said he had no regrets though as his time of 1:54.35 was a personal best.

Also in action today will be China's veteran swimmer Qi Hui, in the semifinal of women's 200m breaststroke, and 4x200m women's freestyle relay team.

Xinhua contributed to the story