Ye Shiwen unaffected by controversy over doping insinuations
Chinese teenager Ye Shiwen defied the controversy surrounding her to claim her second Olympic title of the week as she continued to fight off insinuations of doping.
The 16-year-old added the 200 metres individual medley title to the 400m gold she won on the first night of competition which has prompted so much questioning.
She took five seconds off her personal best and a second off Stephanie Rice's world record for her first gold, but it was the manner of her victory that was mind-boggling, swimming the final length quicker than the winner of the men's equivalent Ryan Lochte.
American coach John Leonard branded her performance "suspicious", "disturbing" and "unbelievable", and made comparisons with previous doping cases.
On Tuesday Ye was third at the final turn before producing her now customary blistering freestyle to touch in an Olympic record of two minutes 07.57 seconds.
It was some way off Ariana Kukors's world record, the American embracing her rival after the race in contrast to last night when the Chinese was isolated.
At a press conference the teenager had to constantly fight off questions about doping and claimed the criticism was undeserved.
She said: "I think this is a little bit unfair for me, however I was not affected by that. I'm not affected by the outside noise."
She agreed with the analysis of Jiang Zhixue, who leads anti-doping work at China's General Administration of Sport, who said the critics were biased.
British swimmer Hannah Miley was seventh behind Ye in the women's 200m individual medley final and fifth in the longer race, and she refused to criticise her rival.
The Scot said: "It is a shame but for us we don't tend to get involved - that's the political side of things.
"We just get in and race, that's our job, that's what we do, and when she raced she did an outstanding performance and you can't but applaud that.
"It's just a shame when people start analysing that these things come up and these queries happen.
"For us it's not something we should be worrying about - it's something the officials and governing bodies can deal with."
London 2012 chairman Lord Coe said it would be "very unfair to judge an athlete by a sudden breakthrough".
He told ITV News: "What you tend to forget is probably the 10 years of work that's already gone in to get to that point.
"You need to look back through her career. I think you've got to be very careful when you make judgments like that but yes, it is an extraordinary breakthrough."
British Olympic Association chairman Lord Moynihan said: "We know how on top of the game WADA [World Anti-Doping Agency] are and WADA have passed her as clean. That's the end of the story.
"And it is regrettable there is so much speculation out there.
"I don't like it. I think it is wrong. That athlete or, indeed, any athlete that has never tested positive is an athlete who should be supported by her federation and, indeed, everybody in the Olympic movement.
"Let us recognise that there is an extraordinary swimmer out there who deserves the recognition of her talent in these Games."
The International Olympics Committee told Ye's critics to "get real".
"These are the world's best athletes competing at the very highest level," IOC communications director Mark Adams said.
"We have seen all sorts of records broken already all over the place."
He added: "It is inevitably a sad result of the fact that there are people who dope and who cheat.
"But I equally think it's very sad if we can't applaud a great performance. Let's always give the benefit of the doubt to athletes."
Ye's father Ye Qingsong told Chinese news portal Tencent he accepted it was "normal for people to be suspicious", but added: "The western media has always been arrogant, and suspicious of Chinese people."
In a final, the first five athletes are tested compulsorily along with two others, the IOC said.
Some 1,706 tests have been carried out so far, including 1,344 urine tests and 362 blood tests, the IOC added.