Prolific Zhang chasing Olympic dream

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By Lei Lei (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-10-26 09:32

JINAN, Shandong province: Three gold, one silver and one bronze medal make world champion Zhang Lin the most successful swimmer at the 11th National Games.

However, that hefty haul does not satisfy the 22-year-old who has his sights firmly fixed on Olympic gold.

"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 a silver medal at the Beijing Olympics last August, beaten by Park Tae-hwan of South Korea by that slim margin in the men's 400m freestyle. "I hope through my years of effort I can make up for my regrets at the Beijing Games."

The young Beijing native is considered to be the most successful male swimmer in China. After narrowly missing Olympic gold, Zhang became China's first male world champion this year at the World Championships in Rome by claiming the 800m gold; demolishing Australian great Grant Hackett's world record in the process.

Heading into the National Games, Zhang was expected to sweep all six events in which he participated. However, he came up short. He failed to qualify for the 100m freestyle final, his Beijing team had to settle for silver in the 4x200 freestyle relay and in his last event, the 1,500m on Saturday, he finished third behind Sun Yang, the World Championships' bronze medalist.

"Although I didn't say I could sweep all the six gold medals, I still put much pressure on myself. I was there to defend the gold but not to strive for it," Zhang said after he finished all his events on Saturday. "Today's bronze taught me that I should stay calm mentally."

The process of racing in six events in seven days was also a valuable experience, he said.

"Actually, gold was not that important for me. It was about what I could learn from the races," said Zhang, who also won three gold medals at the 10th National Games four years ago.

"The 1,500m is very difficult, especially the latter half of the race. I want to know how much energy I can afford to expend through the race. It is not that easy and adjusting your attitude and strategy during the race is very important."

As the leader of China's men's swimming, Zhang is often compared to China's sports icon, Liu Xiang, the country's first male athletics Olympic champion, and is often dubbed "Liu Xiang in water".

"I'm still myself," Zhang said. "In swimming, there is only 'Zhang Lin in water'."