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Chinese Youth Games swimming star Li eyes Rio ticket

Xinhua, October 25, 2015 Adjust font size:

China's 16-year-old swimmer Li Zhuhao was no doubt the shiniest star in the pool of the National Youth Games on Sunday after winning men's 200-meter butterfly and 50m freestyle in a night.

As a rising butterfly star in Chinese swimming, the Zhejiang native said he wants to qualify for the 2016 Rio Olympic Games and set a personal best there.

"I hope I can take part in the Rio Games and swim a personal best time in the 100m butterfly there," said Li, who dominated the 100m fly and 50m free finals at the ongoing Youth Games.

"I tried to save some energy for the 50m free when I was competing in the butterfly, so the time of butterfly is OK," said Li. "I had expected a faster time in 50m, but I didn't make it."

Li participated in four events at the Youth Games so far, collecting three gold and one silver as he also won a gold in 200m fly and a silver in 400m free.

"I will focus on butterfly, especially the 100m," said Li, who made 100m fly final at the Kazan worlds this July and ranked the last.

"The world championships this year is the biggest swimming event I have ever participated in," said Li. "I was a little overwhelmed at the worlds because I was a total stranger in Russia and there were so many top swimmers in the world. I felt so nervous during the competition, but it opened my mind and gave me a lot of experiences."

The 16-year-old first became a national champion in 2014, and he won a 100m fly gold at the Olympic Youth Games last year. He also took a silver of the event at the Asian Games.

Li's good results attracted a lot of attention and some considered him as a medal hope for China at the Rio Olympic Games.

Lin Hong, researcher of Sports Science Institute of State General Administration of Sport, said Li may have a chance to challenge American super star Michael Phelps in the 100m butterfly and claim good result at the 2016 Olympic Games.

"He has good physical conditions which helped him claim good results in such an early age," said Lin, who has given advice to a dozen of Olympic and world medalist. "He has improved his start a lot and he needs to improve it more."

"He is still very young and has big potential," Lin added. "He ranked world eighth in 100m fly, and only 0.88 seconds more than world No. 1 Phelps. According to our technical monitoring data, he has a potential of improving 0.2 seconds in his start, and 0.4 to 0.5 seconds in his turn." Endi