BANGKOK, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) — The Chinese women’s swimming team failed to clinch their first planned gold medal on the 4x100m freestyle relay on the opening-day competition in the pool at the Universiade here on Thursday.
Trailing from the first 50 meters on third, China maintained the position until Xu Yanwei overtook the German last swimmer within the final 25 meters for the silver medal.
China finished in three minutes and 41.38 seconds, 0.53 seconds slower than the winners United States.
“I’d try my best. The United States is very strong. We saved the fastest swimmer, Xu Yanwei, at the last but still not enough for the gold,” Chinese swimmer Pang Jiaying said.
China won another silver medal in the men’s 200m butterfly from Chen Yin, who clocked 1:56.59, following Japanese Ryusuke Sakata who snatched the first gold medal in the pool with a time of 1:55.92.
Chen Yin was the first on the start, dropping to the third after 150m but managed to beat Daniel Madwed of the United States to the third on the sprint.
“I could have swum faster. I’m not in my best form here,” said Chen.