Former Olympic champion Ye Shiwen swims to gold at national championships

Two-time London Olympic champion Ye Shiwen clinched the title of the women's 200m individual medley at the Chinese National Swimming Championships here on Tuesday but with unconvincing timing.

The 21-year-old Ye won the last final on Tuesday in two minutes and 11.66 seconds, a far cry from her personal best of two minutes and 7.57 seconds, which led her to the Olympic triumph in London almost five years ago.

"The timing was not satisfying, because I was expecting to finish the race within two minutes and 11 seconds," said Ye, who touched a low point in her career in recent years.

As the defending champion in two individual medley events, Ye finished eighth in the 200m race and failed to qualify for the final in the 400m event at last year's Rio Olympic Games.

"But I felt I swam better than I did last year," said Ye. "The only problem is that I could only handle one or two races. I still need to improve my physical strength."

Olympic champion Sun Yang still got passionate attention from both the media and the audience as he swam into the men's 200m freestyle final as the fastest at one minute and 46.11 seconds.

The 25-year-old Sun won the Rio Olympic gold of the event in one minute and 44.65 seconds and he was even faster at the 2013 Chinese National Games as he set an Asian record in one minute and 44.47 seconds.

In other three finals of the day, Yan Zibei clinched the title of the men's 100m breaststroke in 59.28 seconds. In Monday's semifinals, the 21-year-old broke the national record in 58.92 seconds.

And another national record fell on Tuesday as Li Zhuhao finished first in the men's 50m butterfly final in 23.36 seconds.

Zhang Yufei took the gold of the women's 100m butterfly in 57.63 seconds, 0.35 seconds ahead of London Olympic silver medalist Lu Ying.

Fu Yuanhui reached the women's 100m backstroke final as the third fastest qualifier. Endit