Olympic champion Liu to miss Asian Games
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Olympic champion Liu Zige will miss the Guangzhou Asian Games in November, China's swimming governing body confirmed on Wednesday.
Liu's coach, Jin Wei, said last week the swimmer would skip the event to focus on world-class events such as next year's World Championships in Shanghai and the 2012 London Olympic Games.
Liu, the women's 200m butterfly world record-holder who won the event at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, has not competed since her appearance at the Berlin Word Cup last November.
"She has been fatigued for almost two years after the Beijing Olympics. To prepare for the London Games, we'd better give her a rest to recover her strength and keep her form," said Shang Xiutang, the vice-head of the national swimming governing body.
Shang's words echoed those of Jin.
"Top-class events will be her No 1 priority, especially next year's World Championships in Shanghai and the 2012 London Olympics, so missing this year's Asian Games is acceptable," Jin told Xinhua last week.
In January, Liu traveled to the UK to train with Bill Furmiss, coach of double Beijing gold medalist Rebecca Adlington, and Mark Schubert, coach of American veteran swimmer Janet Evans, for four weeks. She was supposed to take part in the Pan Pacific Championships but canceled her trip because Jin failed to get a visa.
Liu's absence opens the door for another young swimmer, Jiao Liuyang, who finished runner-up behind Liu at the Beijing Olympics.
"Without Liu, we still have other young girls competitive enough to seek gold medals in the pool," Shang said.
Liu's absence from the Asian Games may give her a long-awaited break to refresh herself after constantly appearing in major events the past two years.
Liu, who earned the only gold in the pool for China by finishing the women's 200m butterfly final in 2 minutes, 04.18 seconds in 2008, posted a record 2:01.81 in the same event at China's National Games in Jinan last year, shaving almost two seconds off the world mark of 2:03.41 set by Jessica Schipper of Australia at the 2009 Rome Worlds.
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