Chinese swimmer Li Yang bettered the world record in the 50 metres backstroke at the 4th World Military Games in Hyderababd on Friday evening.

Li Yang, a silver medallist in the earlier MWG, had a good start and was followed by compatriot Tianlongzi Xu. But the former kept increasing her lead before returning the record time of 28.09 seconds, almost a second (.96) adrift of the second-placed Liu (29.05 secs).

Daniela Samulski (29.07 secs) got the bronze medal.

American Leila Vaziri was the holder of the record at 28.16 secs set in Melbourne World Championship on March 28 this year.

But it remains to be seen whether the new record will be approved by FINA, the world body for the sport.

Yang's name was not included in the starters' list but the organisers resolved the issue and included her.

"I am excited about setting the new world record. I never expected it. I am preparing for the Beijing [Images] Olympics [Images] and am hopeful of getting a medal. My earlier best was 28.78 seconds."

With one more day to go in swimming events, China has so far collected seven gold, eight silver and four bronze medals through 12 competitors in 29 events.

Indian swimmers, ten of them, failed to cross the first hurdle of qualifying for their respective events.

In today's events, LShyama Singh (31.99 secs) and S P Lanka (32.85secs) finished identical fourth in two different 50m breaststroke heats, while Sunil Kumar was fourth in the 50m backstroke heat with a timing of 29.40 secs.

In the 4x100m freestyle relay, India finished sixth and last, clocking 3 minutes 41.32 seconds.