161 First Day Finale 2

The importance of the first swimmer was second only to the last one in the relay race.

In the British team was the 100m backstroke world record holder Liam Tankock. His freestyle strength was also among the top in the world. The Great Britian team ranked fourth in the preliminaries and were in lane 6.

The Australian team's first bat was the strongest this year and also the strongest contender for the 100m freestyle gold medal, James Magnussen, they ranked second in the preliminary results and were next to the British team, in lane 5.

On the other side was the United States team with the "Old Thunder" Jason Lezak at first bat for them. They ranked third in the preliminaries and were in the third lane.

The 100m freestyle world record holder Alan Bernard was who the French team sent up, they had scored first place in the preliminaries so were naturally in the fourth lane, the most optimal lane.

It could be said that every opponent, regardless of whether it was reputation or a strength, was a lot stronger than the Chinese team.

Although the team members were confident, there was no doubt that China's 100-meter freestyle relay team was an absolute underdog in terms of strength.

"On your marks!"

"Get set!"

As the referee issued the countdown, the swimmers all bent over and got in position.

Buzz!

With the buzzer, the swimmers leapt into the pool.

Entering the water, the Australian Magnusson showed his form, he took the lead followed by France's Bernard, America's Lezak, with Britians Tankcock ranked fourth, followed by a German swimmer in fifth.

Ning Xuantao worked hard and surpassed the Canadain swimmer to rank sixth.

50 meters in, this ranking still hadn't changed, Ning Zetao still held his sixth place.

"Come on Ning Xuantao!"  "Come on James Magnussen!"  "Come on Jason Lezak!"

The audience at the scene all launched into their own chants for their respective countries and swimmers, try to their best to cheer loudly, hectic noise filled the whole venue.

Perhaps infected by this atmosphere. Ning Zetao made a strong push the last 50 meters after the turn, he surpassed the German swimmer before the finish line and raised the Chinese team's position to fifth.

After touching the wall, he coughed violently, it was clear to see that he had really gone all out this  time.

The Chinese team's second swimmer was Lu Zhibin, who won the Asian Games men's 100-meter freestyle gold at the Asian Games last year.

Different from the way Ning Zetao broke out, Lu Zhibin was a fiercer swimmer who rushed forward in the early stages. Entering the pool, he immediately started to accelerate madly.

Amidst the excitement of the audience, he successfully surpassed Britain's Simon Blatter moving them up from fifth to fourth.

The whole venue was boiling.

Lu Zhibin was still speeding up but it seemed fourth place would be his limit.

America's Garnet Weber, France's Gayle Manado and Australia's Matthew Abboud maintained their leads.

And in the second leg of the race, his weakness was highlighted. When he reached the last 20 meters his speed slowed due to fatigue allowing Britian's Simon Blatter to catch up and retake fourth place.

In the end, Lu Zhibin wasn't able to build on Ning Zetao performance but he maintained fifth place.

Touching the wall, the veteran's face was pale and he looked exhausted.

Such a high-intensity event was hard to deal with, let alone when competing against the world's top freestyle swimmers.

However, it could be seen that Tang Yan's words before the race had moved them, seeing how hard they were trying.

Lu Zhibin was followed by Sun Yang.

The 100-meter freestyle wasn't Sun Yang's strong point but he was still among one of the best in the Chinese team.

After entering the pool, Sun Yang exploded forward directly. This wasn't the time to conserve energy, he had to keep them in the race as a real contendor so Tang Yan could have a glimpse of a change of pulling something off.

"Sun Yang! Come on! Sun Yang!"

The Chinese fans at the scene shouted Sun Yang's name loudly, cheering for him.

Entering the 50-meter turn, Sun Yang's height advantage was demonstrated. Demonstrating his excellent turning skills, Sun Yang launched of the wall, successfully closing a large amount of the gap between him and forth.

Reducing the distance between him and Britain's Grant Turner.

The waves of cheering overwhelmed the sound of the waves, and Sun Yang was desperately charging forward.

Looking at the resolute figure of Sun Yang and listening to the wild chants of the scene, Tang Yan's adrenaline soared straight up.

With less than 10 metres left, Sun Yang was rapidly gaining on Turner.

They both launched for the wall with a final quick.

Sun Yang touched the wall with a disadvantage of 0.05 seconds behind Turner.

Touching the wall, Sun Yang almost slipped but fortunately latching onto the top of the pool wall and pulling himself in, he didn't affect Tang Yan's dive in.

He felt more exhausted after this 100-meters than after his 1,500m races.

Tang Yan after entering the water was still in fifth place but maintanined the distance Sun Yang had closed down.

At this point, the top four leading teams were Australia, United States, France and the United Kingdom.

The Australian team was arguably the team with the highest probability of winning the race. Their three previous swimmers, although not superior, had always been leading. This advantage combined to give them a full two metre lead over the second place American team.

The last spot for the US team was given to superstar Phelps. He had been trying to catch up after entering the water, but the last spot on the Australian team was given to another superstar, Eamon Sullivan.

Behind the US team with a slight disadvantage was the French team, with their last swimmer Fabien Gilot who was launching a fierce pursuit of Phelps.

In fourth place for the British team was Adam Brown, he was half a metre behind Gilot.

After that, was Tang Yan followed by Germany's Biedermann. Tang Yan was ever so close to Adam Brown with Biedermann trailing less than half a metre behind.

"Tang Yan set a new Asian record in the national championships just gone and became the to swim the 100m freestyle under 48 seconds. This is the last shot of the relay race, it's time to see what kind of result can he produce!"The Chinese commentator said nervously and expectantly.