China's Zhang breaks national record in men's 400m freestyle

SHAOXING, East China, April 3 (Xinhua) -- China's top freestyler Zhang Lin set a new national record of three minutes 44.97 seconds in the men's 400 meters freestyle at an Olympics test event here on Thursday.

"This is a good result, but as far as I know, the score would be out of the top three at the Olympics. There is still a long way to go if I want to get any medal in the event," Zhang said.

The 21-year-old swimmer shaved 0.07 second from his own national record of 3:45.04 set at the Good Luck Beijing Swimming China Open competition in February.

In the final, Zhang led throughout the race, beating national teammate Sun Yang to the second with 3:48.26.

Zhang said he will go to Australia for more training in May.

The world record for the event is 3:40.08, set by Australia's Ian Thorpe in 2002.

At the Olympic trials, Zhang claimed the title of the men's 200 freestyle on Tuesday, clocking 1:47.63 and nearly hitting his national record set at the 2007 World Championships.