The Good Luck Beijing China Open continued to produce a set of largely mediocre times at a moment when most of those aiming for success at the Games in August are in the midst of heavy training.

The key exceptions were Zhang Lin and Zhu Qianwei. Early February, and a 3:45.04 over 400m freestyle for Zhang. Almost a year ago, March was said to be a bad time of year for Zhang as he missed the 400m final in a time some 5sec slower than his latest effort in Beijing, which would have won him the silver at Melbourne 2007.

His teammate Sun Yang got the touch, in 3:49.34, over Pawel Korzeniowski (POL), on 3:49.94. At 300m, Zhang was ahead of the pace of Tae Hwan Park's Melbourne victory. He told Xinhua that his effort, a Chinese record was "e;well beyond expectation"e;. It also followed a 3:46.27 Chinese record from Zhang in Queensland in December. Prior to that, his best was a 3:47.07 from Pan Pacs in 2006.

Zhu Qianwei is 17. She went a 2:00.45, 0.20sec inside her best time, in the heats of the 200m freestyle and then defeated world silver medallist Annika Lurz (GER) 1:58.90 to 1:59.55, with Melbourne 400m silver medallist Otylia Jedrzejczak (POL) third on 2:00.79. When Laure Manaudou clocked that extraordinary 1:55.52 world record at Melbourne 2007, she came hom in 29.73. Zhu zipped past Lurz with a homecoming 29.77. Surely, she had rested up a little for a good domestic show. Her best was a 2:00.65, with a 2006 best of 2:02.40

World 100m record holder Britta Steffen (GER) took the 50m free comfortably in 24.93; Japan teammates Ryo Tateishi and Yuta Suenaga came home ahead of the pack over 100m breaststroke, 1:01.58 to 1:02.10.

Koreans Seul Ki Jung and Darae Jong made it a one-two over 200m breaststroke, 2:25.16 to 2:25.85, and back in eight, former world record holder Qi Hui (CHN), with a 2:36.32 morning final after a 2:27.11 evening heat. Perhaps she's not a morning person. Her teammate You Meihong took the 800m freestyle in 8:31.18.