(Beijing, February 3) The women's 400m freestyle final of the "Good Luck Beijing" 2008 Swimming China Open concluded at "Water Cube" National Aquatics Center. As a result, Annika Lurz of Germany took the title with a time of 4:10.60, 4.98 faster than that in the heats yesterday. After the final, Lurz expressed her great satisfaction with her performance today.

Lurz said, "However, I was more satisfied with the result than the champion." Her result in the final today was not only better than that (4:14.58) in the heats yesterday, but also better than that she had achieved in Luxemburg last weekend.

Lurz, aged 29, was still active on world competition fields despite such an old age and had to face much more difficulty than young swimmers. She expressed frankly, "It is really hard to keeping training and competing at such an old age. I once spent five years on adjustment and rest. I was injured on the back last summer, it really hurt in the beginning, but I feel well now after six to eight weeks of rest."

Because of the short interval between the women's 400m freestyle final and 200m freestyle final at the Olympic Games, Lurz is likely to give up one of the two events. She expressed, "I'm still not clear about which event to participate in, you know, I have been out of form in the 200m recently, I need to think it over before making the decision."

In the subsequent 4x100m free relay final, Lurz, together with her teammates, won another title for German.