Michael Phelps competed his own race in the men's 200 meters butterfly event here on Wednesday. But Chinese swimmer Wu Peng was encouraged to lead the following group.

Phelps, the double world champion and Olympic title holder in the event, showed his overwhelming dominance by slicing 1.62 second off the world record of one minute and 53.71, which was updated by him just one month ago.

"Phelps was so fast. I even began to doubt myself during the race," said Wu, who was dropped behind in almost three body lengths, but still picked up the silver in 1:55.13.

"I knew he was in extremely good form and I had anticipated that he was ready to break the world record," said Wu. "But when Isaw he lead by so big a margin, I still failed to control my pace for a while. "

The 19-year-old Wu admitted that he felt a little bit frustrated for being drop behind in more than three seconds by the American wunderkind. However, he was satisfied with his second personal best result and was aiming to confirm his leading position in the second group after Phelps.

"The result was not bad. After all, the World Championships was too close to the Doha Asian Games and I didn't train well ahead of the meeting."

Wu improved his personal best to one minute and 54.91 seconds with which he bravely defended his title at the Asian Games last December.

During the warming up for the real combat in Melbourne, Wu suffered a lymphatic inflame brought by a wisdom tooth.

"Beating Phelps won't be a realistic goal," said Wu in the press conference. "I'll just concentrate on improving myself and try to lead in the second group."

As the most aggressive male swimmer in the Chinese squad. Wu concluded his Olympic debut with a sixth place in the event in Athens 2004.

One year later, the teenager grabbed a bronze in the event in Montreal, which was the second ever medal obtained by a Chinese male swimmer at long-course world championships.

But Wu knew that he was a little bit lucky as American wunderkind Michael Phelps, looking for swimming more in freestyle, gave up the chance to defend his title.

"The competition in the second group is very tough, the times of the swimmers there are very close," said Wu.

Wu will focus on the 200 meters butterfly, which has been decided as the only event he will participate at the Beijing Olympics. He will go to the United States for training in May and hope for a closer position to Phelps.

(Xinhua News Agency March 29, 2007)