China's Zhang breaks national record of men's 1500m freestyle

SHAOXING, East China, April 5 (Xinhua) -- China's top freestyler Zhang Lin shattered the national record of the men's 1500 meters freestyle with 14 minutes 55.98 seconds at the Olympic trials here on Saturday.

Zhang managed to shave more than three seconds off his own national record of 14:59.02 and became the world's fourth fastest man in the long-distance race this year.

But the result is still 0.95 seconds slower than the Asian record of 14:55.03 owned by his archrival South Korea's Park Tae-Hwan. The world record of the event is kept by Australia's Grant Hackett at 14:34.56.