Swimming: Chinese break more records

China's women continued their domination of the short-distance events at the World Championships in Rome last night when their 4x100 medley quartet broke two world records on the way to a gold medal. Leading off, He Cihong beat Krisztina Egerszegi's old 100m backstroke record of 1:00.31, set in 1991, with a time of 1min 0.16sec. Dai Guohong, Liu Limin and Le Jingyi then took over to set a new record of 4:01.67, erasing the mark of 4:02.54 set by the United States team at the 1992 Olympics. Earlier their compatriot, 17-year- old Lu Bin claimed gold in the 200m individual medley. Alexander Popov of Russia completed a 50m and 100m double to go with his two Olympic titles, clocking 22.17sec over one length of the Foro Italico pool; Mark Foster of Britain finished sixth. Nick Gillingham yesterday blamed emotional upheaval for his disappointing performance in Rome. Gillingham's father died in February and the swimmer vowed to win a Commonwealth Games gold medal in his name. This he did, but the promise exacted a price on Friday when he finished fourth in the 200m breastroke. 'If I had had enough emotion I might have won,' he said. 'Basically, for 15 years I have been racing for myself and one other. In Canada I raced with my heart and not my head and I won for my dad. I owe him everything. Now I have to want it for myself.'