BERLIN, Nov. 18 (Xinhua) -- Swimmers from all around
the globe have set four new world records at the short course Arena World Cup in
Berlin, motivating the top swimmers to train harder for the Beijing Olympic
Games.
The most shining star in the two-day event was
Swedish Stefan Nystrand, who splashed to two world records on Saturday and
Sunday receptively.
On Sunday, Nystrand bettered the world record in the
men's 50-meter freestyle by clocking 20.93 seconds, and a day earlier, a world
record in the 100-meter freestyle by finishing in 45.83 seconds.
The 26-year-old said his objective in the upcoming
Beijing Olympic Games is to bring home with two gold medals.
"It's my aim to keep on improving, especially with
regard to the Olympic Games next year. I would like to capture two gold medals
there," he said.
The veteran competed at the Olympic Games in 2000 and
2004, but his best performance was a fourth place.
For the women's events, Dutch Marleen Veldhuis
updated the records she herself would not have imagined.
On Saturday, Veldhuis set the world record in the
women's 50-meter freestyle by clocking 23.58 seconds, lowering the old
record by 0.01 second.
On Sunday, the 28-year-old veteran marked a new
European record of women's 100m freestyle.
The last world record was set by Brazilian Thiago
Pereira on Sunday, who clocked 1:53.14 in the men's 200-meter individual medley.
Pereira also won the gold medal in the men's
400-meter medley a day earlier, just shy of the world record by 0.26 second.
"After the good result in yesterday's 400-meter
individual medley, I narrowly missed the world record, I knew I could attack the
world record in the 200-meter today," he said after the race on Sunday.
South Korea's Park Tae-Hwan also seized two golds
over the past two days.
Park clocked 14:34.39 in the men's 1,500-meter
freestyle to claim the gold medal.
Despite exhaustion from the long race, Park
participate in the men's 200-meter freestyle just five minutes after his first
race. He finished with 1:42.22 to seal his second gold medal.
"It's no problem for Tae Hwan to compete on such a
high level in two successive races," said Park's coach Seok Ki Park.
"We have not decided yet if Tae Hwan is going to
compete in the200m freestyle at the Beijing Olympic Games. Our priority are the
400m and 1500 freestyles," he added.
Comparing the Berlin event to the previous
short-course series, Chinese coach Liu Haitao told Xinhua that world swimmers
demonstrated high level performance in Berlin.
"The performance in Berlin is the best, quite a lot
of top swimmer gathered here," he said.
Liu said the competition for the Beijing Olympic
Games will be fierce.
"Everybody is trying his effort, but for us, we are
doing our own work," he added.