Tough morning for Asian swimmers

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Sydney: Asia had a rough day in the pool on the first day of the Olympic swimming competition on Saturday with just two Japanese swimmers moving on and China's world record holder Chen Yan failing to make the grade.

Japan's Yasuko Tajima, the 1998 world championship bronze medallist, qualified second fastest for the final of the women's 400 metres individual medley with a time of four minutes 40.35 seconds.

Chen, 19, was in the same heat but finished far behind in 4:45.65, more than 10 seconds outside the 4:34.79 world record she set in Shanghai in 1997.

European champion Yana Klochkova of Ukraine, silver medallist behind Chen in the world championships in Perth in January 1998, was the fastest qualifier for the evening's final in 4:37.64.

Chen, the only Chinese world swimming champion to come to Sydney, has suffered from ill health and poor form since she won in Perth."It's so cold in Sydney. I have a cold at the moment because of the cold weather. I couldn't swim my best," Chen said.

Japan's Kosuke Kitajima qualified fifth for the men's 100 breaststroke semi-finals with a time of 1:01.68. Italian Domenico Fioravanti of Italy was the fastest in 1:01.32, followed by Czech Republic's Daniel Malek in 1:01.56.

The semi-finals will be run on Saturday night with the final on Sunday.

Singapore's top swimmer, Joscelin Yeo, failed to qualify for Sunday's women's 100 butterfly final with her time of 1:01.28 well behind world record holder Inge de Bruijn in 57.60 and America's Jenny Thompson finish of 57.66.

Both times broke the Olympic mark of 58.62 set by Qian Hong of China at the 1992 Barcelona Games.

Yeo still plans to compete in four other events.

Another Singaporean, Sng Ju Wei, finished far off the pace in the men's 400 metres freestyle qualifying, but his time of 4:01.34 broke the Singaporean record of 4:03.23.

Australia's world champion Ian Thorpe was the fastest in qualifying with a time of 3:44.65.

China's Liu Limin, 24, also failed to move ahead in the women's 100 butterfly, clocking a disappointing 59.98.

China also failed to qualify for the women's 4x100 relay final.

China dominated women's swimming before a succession of drug scandals overtook them and have come to Sydney with a depleted squad after more dope test troubles.

Wu Yanyan, women's 200 metres individual medley world champion ahead of Chen, was banned for four years after failing a dope test earlier this year.

Men's 100 breaststroke world silver medallist Zeng Qiliang and women's 100 freestyle world bronze medallist Shan Ying were among a group of 27 Chinese athletes dropped from the Olympic team shortly before Games after some failed dope tests.



(c) Reuters Limited.