Chinese top freestyle swimmer Zhang Lin sparked at a test event for the Beijing Olympic Games, snatching his third gold medal in the men's 1,500 meters race in Beijing on Sunday.

Despite his victory at the 2008 Swimming China Open, the freestyle specialist did not get complacent.

"My result was lackluster," said Zhang after the race.

"I did not swim as well as I did yesterday," Zhang told reporters, adding that the swimmers in the race were too weak to push him to a better result.

The 21-year-old rocked the home crowd on Saturday with a national record-breaking performance in the 400 meters race. He sliced 1.23 seconds off an early national record he set at a swim meet in Australia last December.

Zhang's finishing time of three minutes and 45.04 seconds was less than a second away from his archrival Park Tae-Hwan of South Korea, who ranked first with 3:44.30 in the FINA's 2007 world rankings.

Zhang's time could elevate him from the current seventh to the second in the rankings.

"I was better prepared," said Zhang, adding a new national record had been out of his expectation.

Zhang on Friday finished third over 200 meters and then blamed insufficient preparation.

Zhang also helped China win the sixth, second of his own, gold in Sunday's competition, in which Zhang anchored the team to a close victory over Germany, who had led over the first three legs.

Zhang had made fabulous progress since he started to be trained by Denis Cotterell, former coach of long-distance king Grant Hackett, at the end of last year.

He rewrote his own national records in both the 400 meters and 1,500 meters at a swim meet in Queensland last December and became one of 10 elite male swimmers to beat the 1,500 meters 15-minute barrier last year.

"I hope he will keep the momentum in the run-up to the Olympics," Zhang's coach Chen Yinhong said.

China Open kicked off on Thursday with over 230 swimmers from 30 countries and regions participating, but swimming powerhouses like the United States and Australia are absent from the event.

(Xinhua News Agency February 4, 2008)