Ye Shiwen of China prepares for the start of the final of women’s 200m individual medley swimming competition, at London 2012 Olympic Games in London, Britain, on July 31, 2012. Ye Shiwen won the gold medal of the event with a time of 2:07.57 and set a new Olympic Games record. (Xinhua/Fei Maohua)
LONDON, July 31 (Xinhua) -- China's swimming breakout swimmer Ye Shiwen stunned the world again as she captured her second Olympic gold in women's 200m individual medley at London Olympics on Tuesday, beating the Olympic record she set earlier in the semifinal.
Ye, 16, launched another devastating final length of freestyle to sprint home first in 2:07.57.
Australian Alicia Coutts, who already took a gold in bronze in 4x100m freestyle relay and 100m butterfly in London, took silver in 2:08.15. The bronze medal to American Caitlin Leverenz who clocked 2:08.95.
Roared on by a capacity crowd, Ye maintained her strength in the first butterfly leg, hanging on to let defending Olympic champion Stephanie Rice to lead the field. As the fourth at the turn, she gradually reeled in and seized the lead after her backstroke leg.
After a slow lead off from Coutts in the breaststroke leg, Ye put on a devastating final 50m and leaving Coutts for dead at the last second.
"I couldn't lose the race," said Ye, who was tipped the top seed in the race.
"I didn't expect others to swim so fast. I was surprised," she added.
Ye's signature last 50m well impressed the world, and was also clearly aware by her competitors.
"I knew that Ye had a very fast last 50m. I've put in some seriously hard work," said Coutts, who was indeed turned over by Ye in the last 50m sprint.
Though settling for silver, Coutts said she was satisfied for it (the time) was her personal best.
Defending champion Rice, also world record holder from Beijing Olympics, was shut out of medals with a fourth stand.
"I am very disappointed. I messed things with the fly and the back, I did not come home as well as I probably would have liked to," said Rice, triple Olympic champion but empty-handed in London.
She was over one-body length away from Ye, world champion of the event at 2011 Shanghai World Championships.
Ye also produced a remarkable show in the semifinal on Monday as she set a new Olympic record of 2:08.39 to be the fastest qualifier, only for herself to renew in the final.
It is the second gold medal Ye bagged at London Olympics with the other one in 400m individual medley, in which she erased the world record of Rice from Beijing Games by one second.
Her final 50m sprint was labelled as "incredible" by many superstars including American prodigy Ryan Lochte. In the 400m individual medley final, Ye put on a superfast last leg in 28.93, even faster than Ryan Lochte recorded in the final 50m in men's 400m freestyle event which saw him atop the Olympic podium.
Her outstanding victory also triggered suspicions and some turned it to banned substances. Ye said she was never affected by doubters of her remarkable results which were down to hard traing.
Two golds from two individual events in her Olympic debut, Ye has become the most prolific swimmer China has ever produced.
