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Chinese swimmers set off to a stiff start Saturday at the Athens Olympic Games.

Zhou Yafei, the best performed among the Chinese swimmers on the first day of the swimming competition, had to settle for the 12th place in the semifinal while the Chinese 4x100m freestyle team was silent before the newly created world record of three minutes 35.94 seconds of the Australian women in the evening session.

In the morning, Zhang Tianyi, the youngest of the Chinese delegation, was disqualified from the women's 400m individual medley.

The 14-year-old fouled in her breaststroke laps before she swamaround four minutes 56 seconds, 12 seconds outside her personal best.

"I am disappointed," said Zhang after finishing her Olympic debut. "I warmed up well and did not feel any pressure but I even couldn't swim close to my personal best."

Similarly, American up-and-coming star Katie Hoff also failed to deliver.

Hoff became the youngest member of the 2004 Olympic team after winning both the 200m and 400m IM at Olympic Trials and broke the Trials meet and U.S. Open record in the 400m IM in 4:37.67.

In Saturday's heats, Hoff was placed 17th overall in 4:47.49.

For Chinese men's swimmers, the first day was also full of sad moments.

Asian Games triple champion Wu Peng failed to qualify for the men's 400m IM final following his 14th finish in 4:19.32.

It had been expected that the 17-year-old raced into the last eight to create the best Chinese men's result eight years after Jiang Chengji finished fourth in the 100m butterfly in Atlanta Olympics.

"I felt stiffness in my body when I was swimming. It was a pitythat I didn't bring my potential to a full display," said Wu.

Zhang Lin in the men's 400m freestyle was in 26th place while Wang Haibo finished 30th.
 
Editor: Catherine