Liu said she expected to break 200m butterfly record

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's Olympic champion Liu Zige expected to reclaim the women's 200 meters butterfly world record at the China National Games after earlier almost breaking the 100 record.

"I was prepared to break the record before the race," the 20-year-old told the China Daily after she chopped more than one and a half seconds off the 200 record on Wednesday.

"I'm still young and on the rise. If I can continue to improve, more records will fall."

Liu touched in two minutes 01.18 seconds to win the event at China's National Games in Jinan, Shandong Province, demolishing the 2:03.41 set by Australia's Jessicah Schipper at the Rome world championships in July.

The 20-year-old Liu had previously held the record when she clocked 2:04.18 to win gold at last year's Beijing Olympics.

It was the first swimming world record at the China National Games, though earlier in the week Liu finished just 0.01 seconds outside Swede Sarah Sjostrom's world record of 56.06 in the 100 butterfly.

(Reporting by Liu Zhen; Editing by Greg Stutchbury)