Taiwanese hopefuls Cheng Wan-jung and Hsu Chi-chieh leave for Shanghai today to compete in this year’s FINA World Championships.
Cheng won the gold medal in the women’s 400m individual medley at the 2009 East Asian Games in Hong Kong, making her the first Taiwanese swimmer in 11 years to win gold at a major competition.
Last year at the Asian Games in Guangzhou, China, she won bronze in the same category.
Cheng promised that she would do her best in Shanghai, but admitted that her focus is on this year’s Universiade next month.
“I expect to set a new record for the country in the 200m individual medley in August and it will be so much better if I can also break the record in the 200m butterfly,” Cheng said.
Meanwhile, Hsu, nicknamed “Taiwan’s king of the butterfly,” clocked a national record time of 1 minute, 56.54 seconds to finish third in the men’s 200m butterfly at the 2009 East Asian Games.
Hsu is also concentrating on next month’s Universiade, saying the timing of the two competitions is so close that competitors need to choose to focus on just one of them.
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