Italian swimmer Federica Pellegrini broke the world record for women's 200 meters freestyle in the heats here on Monday, while Wu Peng, Chinese ace butterflyer, finished his debut at the Water Cube only in the seventh position into the semifinals.

The 20-year-old Italian girl said she never intended to set a world record in the heats, however, she really felt good in the pool.

"No, no, no, no, no. I didn't want to set a record tonight. But I felt good in the water and I said alright let's go," Pellegrini said.

Pellegrini finished the first 50 meters only at the fourth place and then managed a sprint finish to touch home at 1:55.45, 0.07 seconds faster than the previous record held by French veteran Laure Manaudou.

"It's great revenge after what happened this morning (coming fifth in the women's 400m freestyle)," the Pellegrini said.

American teenage swimmer Katie Hoff made the semifinals at 1:57. 20, 0.17s second faster than Chinese freestyler Pang Jiaying who also qualified.

Katie, along with her teammate Natalie Coughlin, Australian Alicia Coutts and Zimbabwean legend Kirsty Coverntry also qualified for the semifinals of women's 200m individual medley. Surprisingly, Chinese veteran Qi Hui suffered a humiliating disqualification and only ranked at 20th for the event.

On the men's side, Chinese ace butterflyer Wu Peng finished his debut at the 7th and earned himself a seat in the semifinals of men's 200m butterfly race.

"I felt good. This is just the heats. I had the desire to win the first place in my group, and I felt relaxed and easy since it was only the heat", Wu said after the race.

"I am used to speeding up in the second half of the race. I swam easily today and I will swim faster in the coming competitions," Wu said.

The 21-year-old swimmer has become the flag-bearer of the Chinese swimming squad and is one of the team's best hopes to take home an Olympic medal at the Beijing Games.

Phelps fired his third jump into the pool within a day and finished first at 1:53.70, 0.61s second slower than the world record created by himself in Melbourne.

Hungarian star swimmer Laszlo Cseh also qualified for the semifinals to be held on Tuesday morning.

(Xinhua News Agency August 11,2008)