China's Xu Danlu swims to prominence in Dubai

Chinese teenager in a record-breaking effort in the 800m freestyle at the Asian Swimming Championships.

Xu Danlu, the upcoming Chinese swimmer, raced to her second gold medal in as many days in Dubai. Giorgio Perottino / Deepbluemedia.eu / InsideFoto

The teenage newcomer Xu Danlu further established herself as one of the rising stars of Chinese swimming by shattering another record at the Asian Swimming Championships in Dubai last night.

The 13 year old swam a personal best of eight minutes, 22.24 seconds in the 800m freestyle, taking almost 16 seconds off Zhang Yan's record that had stood for 12 years.

Xu's victory was her second in as many days, after taking gold in Saturday's 400m freestyle, also in championship record time.

Wang Shun followed up on his 400m individual medley victory with gold in the 200m individual medley, taking two-and-a-half seconds off the previous mark to finish in a time of 1:58.66.

Xu Jiayu, meanwhile broke his championship record on the way to gold in the men's 100m backstroke in 54.24 seconds.

Having already claimed victory in the 100m and 200m, Zhao Jin completed her breaststroke clean sweep, taking gold in the women's 50m event and added another gold in the 4x100m medley relay.

South Korea's Hye Ra Choi was the only non-Chinese gold medallist last night with her victory in the women's 200m individual medley.

The Chinese men's 4x100m freestyle relay victory then brought their country's total from the swimming events to 33 out of 38 golds.

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