Shanxi won nine golds, seven silvers and five bronze medals at the swimming program of the 2nd National Youth Games which concluded in Taiyuan, in Shanxi province, on Aug 17. 

The eight-day meet consisted of 84 sport events including the butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, freestyle, medley and freestyle relay -- with 506 athletes from 46 teams from all over China taking part. 

The Taiyuan Swimming School and Datong Sports School sent 32 athletes to the competition on behalf of Shanxi province. 

Among them, Shanxi's rising stars Yang Chang and Liu Haiyun took the spotlight.

Yang Chang, 18, won the women's 100 meter breaststroke and the women's 50m breaststroke championship in the school sports category. Liu Haiyun took the women's 200m backstroke bronze in the school sports group A section. 

"Overall, there were some gains and shortcomings in the competition," said Xia Shichao, swimming coach of Shanxi delegation.

"Zhejiang, Shanghai, and Guangdong teams have a large number of high-level swimmers, while we have just seven or eight available swimming talent with two or three of them specially trained. In general, the overall swimming sport development in Shanxi is still slow." 

Zhao Wei, another coach in Shanxi's swimming team, said that more effort should be made in swimming training and the results in the competitions showed that Shanxi athletes had a lot of potential.

Swimmers take to the water during heat in the 2nd National Youth Games in Taiyuan, in Shanxi province. [Photo/Shanxi Daily]

A backstroker is all concentration during the 2nd National Youth Games in Taiyuan, Shanxi province, on Aug 10. [Photo/sxrb.com]