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The start of something extraordinary

Podium Finish for Boyle in Successful World Cup Campaign

Lauren Boyle has finished her World Cup campaign with second placing in the 400m freestyle at Beijing today.

While the series has been dominated by Boyle and Spanish stars Mireia Belmonte and Melanie Costa, they were all upset by local Chinese freestyler Yiwen Shao.

Costa and Shao turned up the early heat and while the Spaniard dropped off at the 250m mark as Boyle forced up to second place to come within a touch of the victory.

Shao, who has not competed in the series to date, won in 3:58.92 with Boyle second 0.3s behind and Belmonte third a further 0.2 seconds back.

Boyle finished the three leg series in Asia with four wins and three other podiums, to go with two wins and two second placings earlier in the series in Europe.

Results: 400m freestyle: Yiwen Shao (CHN)3:58.92, 1; Lauren Boyle (NZL) 3:59.25, 2; Mireia Belmonte (ESP) 3:59.46, 3.