World swimming champ at National City Games

Ye Shiwen, China's youngest ever (long-course) swimming world champion, failed to make it five gold medals out of five events at the 7th National City Games as she lost a tight 100m freestyle finale by a fingertip on Saturday. The 15-year-old Ye, who had won two individual and two relays at this meet, touched in 55.44 seconds for a bronze medal, just 12 hundredths of a second behind winner Wang Haibing of Shenzhen. Zheng Yanan of Qingdao grabbed silver in 55.34. "It's really incredible," said the 14-year-old Wang. "I never thought I could beat Ye, as she is the world champion, while I am just a minnow." Ye, arguably the biggest name in pool events at the National City Games, blamed her defeat on poor luck. "I was bad on touching today. Otherwise, I might have won," said Ye. Meanwhile, Wang Shun of Ningbo clocked 1:58.56 in the men's 200m IM to just miss the national record of 1:58.53 set by Zhang Zishan in 2009. "It's really a pity that I missed again. I posted the same time at the national championsihps last month," said Wang, who has won golds in 400m IM and 200m freestyle. "This was my third event, so I felt tired before the race. If I was in better shape, I would have broken the record." Li Xiang of Tangshan cruised to victory in the women' 200m breaststroke final in 2 minutes 27.62 seconds. Fan Rong of Zhengzhou took silver in 2:28.61, and Li Qing of Guangzhou grabbed bronze in 2:29.08. Zhang Fenglin of Qingdao surfaced with the triumph in the men's 200m backstroke with a 1:57.03, while Lin Yongqing of Dalian came second in 1:59.73.