Kitajima lights up the pool

At least swimmers Kosuke Kitajima and Liu Zige accomplished something while getting wet in the heavy rain on Thursday at the Beijing Olympics.

Inside the Water Cube, Kitajima became the first man to sweep the breaststroke events for the second straight Olympics by winning the 200 in 2 minutes, 7.64 seconds. 8220;I was so calm that I could have seen each face in this venue,8221; the Japanese swimmer said. 8220;I enjoyed my race.8221;

The host country celebrated when Liu Zige, virtually an unknown entity before the Beijing Games, broke world record in women8217;s 200m butterfly by 1.6sec.

Liu won her country8217;s first swimming gold medal of the games, setting the world mark of 2:04.18. Jiao Liuyang also went under the previous best to give the team mates a 1-2 finish and send the crowd into a frenzy.