MELBOURNE - Chinese swimmer Qi Hui suffered a lot for the new training methods, which proved unsuccessful at the on-going World Championships.

Chinese swimmer Qi Hui (center) reacts after the women's 200m individual medley qualification at the current World Championships in Melbourne March 25, 2007. [Xinhua]

After Olympic champion Luo Xuejuan's retirement in January, the 22-year-old Qi was regarded as the hottest favorite to win a medal for the Chinese squad at the Championships.

Out of almost everyone's surprise, Qi finished her first race in Melbourne with a stunning 25th position in the 200 meters individual medley heats on Sunday. Her result of two minutes and 19.05 seconds was 7.13 second slower than her gold winning time at the Doha Asian Games last December.

"My form was inconsistent since I ended the training with new methods," said Qi after her disappointing opening race, "My muscle was totally stiff during the competition and I just found that I was dropped behind half body length by the other swimmers at the beginning of the race."

Zhang Yadong, head coach of the Chinese swimming team also said that Qi's form was terrible. "It might have something to do with the new training methods."

The new training methods referred above was "living in plateau and training in plain."

In order to making breakthroughs, Chinese swimming decided to try some new training methods. Therefore, the promising Qi was brought to Shanghai, where she lived in a room imitating conditions in plateau, but trained as usual in plain.

"She had never performed well during the three-week training," said Qi's coach Ye Jin, who regretted for making such an attempt.

Ye said, Qi always felt tired while training in Shanghai. "She failed to make any progress, but lost her normal level."

Although Qi got a few weeks to recover from the sequela of living in plateau ahead of the World Championships, she was still not herself while in Melbourne.

"She didn't feel comfortable. She could not exert all her strength during the race," said coach Ye.

"She had never been out of gear in such a way. We wouldn't take the risk of trying new training methods again, especially before major events. It was a costly error."

Qi is slated to take part in the 200 meters breaststroke preliminary on Thursday and the 400 meters individual medley on Sunday.

The suffering swimmer said she had no idea if she would feel better later, but she certainly will try her best in the two events