Ye Shiwen unable to reach Women’s 50m freestyle podium – Swimming News
Two-time Olympic champion, Ye Shiwen of China found it really hard to earn her way to the medal rostrum in the Women’s 50m freestyle at the 2012 Chinese National Long Course Swimming Championships.
The 16-year-old Shiwen, who made the world record in the Women’s 400m Individual Medley (IM) at the 2012 London Olympic Games, tried hard to secure any spot on the victory stand but finished fourth in the event.
At the London Games, she also proved her mettle in the 200m IM, where she captured the title in an improved Olympic record time.
Previously, she captured gold medal of the 200m IM at the 2011 Shanghai World Championships.
Shiwen faced a lot of doping accusations from the media and high ranked officials after her victories at the Olympic Games but the teenage swimmer remained in high spirits and continued her relentless pursuit for improvement.
She faced tough competition from Yin Fan, Xu Wen and Zhang Ding in the one lap freestyle discipline. Fan remained prominent over her opponents and snared gold medal of the event by producing a time of 25.26 seconds.
Fan was trailed by Wen, who remained marginally slower from her and secured silver medal of the event by clocking an effort of 25.45 seconds.
Third spot of the race was obtained by Ying, who seized bronze medal of the event by clocking a time of 25.49 seconds.
Similarly, Shiwen stayed only 0.25 seconds slower from her preceding swimmer and tapped the wall with a timing of 25.74 seconds.
“It should be my best, 0.01 second faster than I did last year in City Games,” Shiwen said.
“I didn't have a good rest since the Olympics because I had a really tight schedule. I'm so tired that I chose less competitive events. Next month I'll head for the plateau training base in Yunnan province. Hopefully I can return to form in time for the
short-course swimming championships at the year-end,” she added.
In addition, Shiwen is looking forward to come back in form before the 2012 World Short Course Championships, as she intends to make her country proud by defending her titles.
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