(Beijing, February 1) "I could not see the scoreboard and so I had no idea how fast I was," said Xu Yanwei while walking out of the pool after the 50m freestyle heats. "But I guess it should be OK, as I was not at all nervous."

On the evening of February 1, Day 2 of the "Good Luck Beijing" 2008 Swimming China Open, China's 2006 Asian Games champion Xu Yanwei became the focus of attention at the National Aquatics Center. When she was told that she had ranked first in her group with 25.65, all she said was "Not too bad."

Commenting on her performance today, Xu said, "I didn't think much at the time of the race. As I had been involved in winter training I did not have much time to prepare for this tournament. I just want to see the effect of my winter training through the intensity of this race."

This morning, Xu worked closely with her teammates to win the women's 4x200m freestyle relay. At a press conference held after the relay final, however, Xu revealed that she would not compete in the 200m freestyle at the coming Olympic Games, and would concentrate her efforts on the 50m and 100m freestyle and 100m butterfly instead. "Sometimes you have to make your choice when it comes to major world tournaments," she said, "and so I'm going to give up the 200m free for the Olympic Games."