CHINA’S Lu Ying broke the Asian record of the women’s 50-meter butterfly at the Kazan world championships Saturday.

    Lu, the bronze medalist of the 100m butterfly, finished third in the 50m final in 25.37 seconds, shaving 0.05 seconds off the previous Asian record set up by herself at the 2013 Barcelona world championships where she finished second.

    “I trained in Austria before the worlds,” said Lu, 26. “I improved my personal best, but I am not happy with my performance. There is still a lot to improve.”

    Swedish Sarah Sjostrom grabbed the gold with a championships record 24.96, while Denmark’s Jeanette Ottesen took the silver in 25.34.

    On Thursday, China’s Ning Zetao surprised a depleted field to win the 100-meter freestyle in 47.84. Pre-race favorite Cameron McEvoy of Australia touched second in 47.95, and Federico Grabich of Argentina was third in 48.12.

    The 22-year-old Ning became the first man from Asia to win a medal of any color in the 100 free at the worlds.

    “It is a dream of Asia, of China, to get gold medals in sprint distances,” Ning said through a translator.

    Ning swept the 50 and 100 freestyle titles at last year’s Asian Games, becoming the first Asian swimmer to break the 48-second barrier. He entered this meet with the second-best qualifying time of 47.70, and has his first world title a year before the Rio de Janeiro Olympics. He’s a member of the Chinese Navy.

    “I will have more confidence to prepare for Rio,” Ning said. “I know it’s true that it could be a slight change in my life and that I could be in the focus of the public. That is my life.”

    Russian sprint great Alex Popov presented the gold medal to Ning, who gave a military salute while his national anthem played.

    “I’m a fan of Popov,” Ning said. “I always [employ] the skill of Popov’s swimming to keep up my training.”(SD-Agencies)