Chinese swimmers to challenge morning finals

World silver medalist Wu Peng will head top swimmers to test the morning finals at the Chinese Spring National Championships in Foshan, Guangdong province from May 15-21.

The meet will offer swimmers first touch of morning finals in readiness for the upside-down program at the Olympic Games in Beijing 2008.

There are about 416 swimmers from 30 provincial teams and clubs competing in the seven-day meet which also serves as one of the qualifiers for the 2008 Olympic Games

Wu, men's 200 meters butterfly silver medalist at the Melbourne world championships, will show up in the 100m butterfly, 200m and 400m freestyle instead of his favorite event.

The 20-year-old Wu said: "It is the first time we compete finals in the morning. I just want to test myself whether I can get used to it."

Chinese swimmers finished one silver and one bronze medal at the Melbourne worlds and most of them suffered from below-par performances in the morning.

Zhang Yadong, head coach of the Chinese national team, said: "We have changed our morning training session from 9am to 6am as soon as we came back home from the worlds. We should live in Beijing Olympic timetable from now on."

"It is hard to reach peak form in the morning. The national meet can tell us what to change and what to improve for the Olympic Games. It is a challenge." Zhang said.

However, women's breaststroker Qi Hui will miss the meet according to her training schedule.

"Qi is recovering from tiredness from the world championships and just returned to training recently.¡± Zhang said