Zhang Lin vows golden revenge at London Olympics
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China's swimming world champion Zhang Lin has vowed to erase the bitter memory of his loss to South Korean gold winner Park Taehwan at the Beijing Olympics by triumph on British soil in 2012.
"Currently the overwhelming target for me is to win at the London Olympics. I hope to make up for my sorrow savored at last year's Beijing Games with hard efforts over these years," Zhang told Xinhua on Friday after easily qualifying for the 1500m freestyle final at the Chinese National Games.
With a 0.58 seconds lag to South Korean prodigy Park, Zhang captured an Olympic silver in the men's 400 freestyle at Beijing Olympics, marking China's first-ever Olympic medal in men's swimming.
"I won't let another 0.58 seconds to crush my Olympic dream any more," said the 22-year-old.
"I got maturer after the Olympics, and now I always study and sum up useful experience with my coach in daily training to prepare for the Olympics."
Zhang seized spotlight from the Chinese public when he won a historic gold in 800m freestyle in July's Rome Worlds with a breathtaking time of 7:32.12 seconds, taking more than six seconds off the four-year-old world record.
The victory made him the first male Chinese swimmer to break a world record in freestyle in 49 years, and also the first male Asian swimmer to seize gold in a long-distance freestyle event at the Olympic Games or the world championships in 73 years.
The historic victory prompted Chinese media to dub him the "Liu Xiang of the pool." Liu became China's first man to win the Olympic track champion in 2004 when he won the 110m hurdles gold.
"I am still myself," said a low-profile Zhang when asked about the comparison.
"Swimming seems to take less limelight from the Chinese public as compared with track and field," he said. "However, I will spare no effort to fulfill the dream of the Chinese and the target of Chinese swimming."
As a star at the on-going Chinese National Games slated for Oct. 16-28 in Jinan of east China's Shandong province, the swimming sensation had already seized three titles out of the six events he participated in.
"I really feel contended with three gold medals in two consecutive National Games for that many athletes trained the same hard but might end up with nothing from the National Games," he said.
Describing himself as a lucky guy, Zhang stressed a sound state of mind serves as an important factor for success.
While the cheering fans expecting his gold haul at the National sports extravaganza, Zhang failed to qualify for the men's 100m freestyle final three days ago partly due to a bad cold.
He played down the gold haul expected by Chinese media as he told reporters he was here to compete for six events, "but not necessary six gold medals".
"I understand and appreciate the expectations of the public on me, such as to sweep gold from all of the six events," he said, adding he felt great pressure from that.
"However, the gold is not assigned to me like a piece of cake. Instead I have to go all out to compete for it.
"Moreover, to claim gold may not equal to success, which might cover up some of your problems in the race," said a cool-headed Zhang.
He said he was just focusing on his next and last event, Saturday's 1,500m freestyle.
"I will definitely try my utmost in the 1500m final and contribute to my Beijing team."
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