为期五天的第八届短池游泳世界锦标赛于4月9日晚落幕。在最后一天的比赛中，中国选手掀起夺金高潮，共赢得三枚金牌。中国队最大的亮点来自于男子200米蝶泳比赛，吴鹏最终以1分52秒36的成绩，为中国队获得了本届男子项目的首枚金牌，并且打破了赛会纪录。面对5金1银6铜的战绩，诚如中国游泳队总教练张亚东所言，上海大赛也可以说是中国军团的一次“奥运模拟测试” ，中国队的表现则让人看到了08年奥运会的希望。

Wu Peng celebrates his winning of men's 200 metres butterfly at the 8th FINA World Short Course Swimming Championships in Shanghai. [Reuters] China is sending a warning to the swimming world that its swimmers might give a stunning show at the Beijing 2008 Games after their best-ever performances at the World Short-course Championships.  With three gold medals including a landmark gold from men's swimmer Wu Peng last night, China ended the tournament with five gold medals, one silver and six bronzes. The previous best came from the 2002 Moscow event where China won three gold medals. "This is a beautiful show," said Zhang Yadong, who took the helm as the head coach of the Chinese squad after the 2005 Montreal World Championships. "Two of my pre-game goals have been met - getting experiences and testing new stars. It does not really matter how much gold medals we won but seeing a steady improvement in the team." There are plenty reasons for Zhang, the man with the mission to head the squad to win three golds in 2008, to be happy. The successful Shanghai trip took the squad out of the shadow of its embarrassing no-medal result at the 2005 Worlds. While the world is closely watching every move of China's camp, which is in high gear for the 2008 Games, the overall growth shown in Shanghai is what Zhang wants most. "It is never right to count on one single swimmer," said Zhang, who guided Luo Xuejuan to the team's only gold medal at 2004 Athens Games. "What we need is team work and overall growth in different events so that we can do better in 2008." (China Daily)

Vocabulary:

World Short-course Championships: 短池游泳世锦赛 took the helm: 担任领导，承担领导责任 steady improvement: 稳步的进展 in high gear for: 做积极准备，处于备战状态