Chinese silver medalist Lu Ying said that she believed it was a good idea for athletes to train away from their homeland this Sunday.

Lu was speaking after winning the silver medal behind Dana Vollmer in the women's 100 meters butterfly in London. It was an improvement on the bronze she had taken in the World Championships in Beijing last year and she put part of the success down to a spell training in Australia.

"When I am trained in Australia, I had a coach who specializes in short distances and the people I swim with have great enthusiasm," she explained, highlighting differences between he two sporting cultures.

"They (Australians) have fun and enjoy themselves before training and they are not scared of being tired, whereas in China, you have to rest, be focused and not do anything other than think of the race," said Lu. "It is different, I think that our way of thinking has many limits and we are bound by our limits.

"Australian friends and family have invited me to barbecues or even for breakfast and in China that never happens," she continued

"I think I can learn a lot from living among athletes of other countries in China we study a lot and train and then rest, whereas abroad, there is study, free time. In other countries they have strength to go to other activities and leisure, while in China we only train," added the silver medal winner, who nevertheless highlighted the vast improvements in Chinese swimmers.

"We had a good start in 2008 and Chinese swimming has got better: a lot of our swimmers made a breakthrough in Shanghai and our the young and older athletes work together like a good family," she concluded.

Meanwhile Vollmer sad her gold medal was more important than breaking the world record and being the first woman to swim under 56 seconds in the event.

"Getting the gold medal is the most important thing," she said. "The world record is the icing on the cake, as you only have few chances to race at the Olympics. It is great to break record, but winning gold means so much to me," she said.

Vollmer's triumph was extra important to her after she had failed to qualify for Beijing and she said he has since been diagnosed with food allergies.

"As I stood on the podium I tried to take it all in, I was thinking about all the work that so many people round me have put in and the belief they showed. I know I wouldn't be here without them. I feel as if it's paid off and I have done what nobody has done before," she commented.