BEIJING, Xinhua News Agency, April 18 -- At Sunday's Chinese Spring Swimming Championships in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, Ouyang Kunpeng topped the qualifiers in the 50-meter backstroke semifinals with a time of 25.53 seconds, breaking the previous Asian record of 25.67 held by a Malaysian swimmer.

The 22-year-old Ouyang, from Jiangxi Province, said, "I'm not surprised with the result. I swam faster than this during training. Hope I can break it again in tomorrow's final."