China takes centre stage at swimming world championships
China got their campaign up and running at swimming's world championships on Monday, claiming two gold medals to banish the memory of a forgettable showing at last year's competition. China won only one individual gold in the pool last year in Budapest but they doubled that tally in the evening's first two races in the southern Japanese city of Fukuoka.Qin Haiyang got things started with victory in the men's 100m breaststroke, taking advantage of dominant Olympic champion Adam Peaty's absence from the competition.Zhang Yufei followed that up with gold in the women's 100m butterfly, beating Olympic champion Maggie MacNeil into second place in a field chock-full of talent. «Last year the whole team didn't perform very well, and we worked hard and tried to be ready for these championships,» Zhang said.
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«We learned from last year. It was an opportunity for us. »Hopefully we can get more gold medals in the next six days," she added. Qin came home in 57.69sec to finish ahead of Italy's Nicolo Martinenghi, American Nic Fink and Arno Kamminga of the Netherlands, who all tied for second on 58.72. Britain's Peaty, the world record-holder and twice Olympic champion in the event, skipped the competition to focus on his mental health.
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Qin set his sights on winning more gold in the 50m and 200m breaststroke. «Tonight went the way I thought it would,» the 24-year-old said. «This is just the start for me because I still have the 50 and the 200 to come.» Zhang, the silver medallist at
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