Sunday 1 May 2016 00:32, UK
Chile's Felipe Aguilar claimed the clubhouse lead in the weather-disrupted Volvo China Open after finally overcoming the effects of his unorthodox winter activities.
Aguilar stormed home in 31 at Topwin Golf and Country Club to add a flawless 65 to his opening 68 and set the target on 11 under par, one shot ahead of Sweden's Alex Noren and Austria's Bernd Wiesberger.
The 41-year-old had missed the cut in six straight events before finishing tied 58th in the Shenzhen International last week and admitted completing an Ironman triathlon over the winter had taken its toll.
"It's been a tough beginning of the year so hopefully this will be a turnaround point," Aguilar said.
"I think I believe my doctors when they said the Ironman was going to affect my fitness for the first two months [of the year]. They said it could take 45 days [to recover] and it took close to 60 days.
"It takes a lot of time and energy and both sports don't go along with each other. I look back on it as a great experience and I'll do it again after I quit playing golf."
Play was initially suspended due to the threat of lightning and then abandoned for the day due to darkness, with the second round set to resume early on Saturday.
First-round leader Hennie Otto has four holes to play and is two shots off the lead on nine under par alongside England's Tyrrell Hatton, Denmark's Lucas Bjerregaard, Germany's Marcel Siem and Korea's Tae-hoon Kim, who recorded a hole-in-one on his way to a brilliant 64.
Kim holed out on the 177-yard 13th hole in a remarkable run of scoring which saw him play a 12-hole stretch in nine under par, before dropping his only shot of the day on the 17th.
"I played well and after I got the hole-in-one I became really confident and finished really well," the world No 563 said.
"It was about 165 metres but with the view from the tee, we couldn't see the hole, only the top of the flag. I was aiming a little to the left of the pin and I just hit a seven iron, it was a beautiful shot and the galleries beside the green shouted out so that's how I knew."
Noren carded five birdies and no bogeys to record a second consecutive 67, while Wiesberger carded four birdies and one bogey in his 69.
"I felt relaxed out there," Wiesberger said. "I played great golf yesterday and scored really well in tough conditions yesterday so I was looking forward to getting out there this morning and trying to do the same.
"I played decent, not quite as well as yesterday, especially off the tee and was struggling with the pace of my putting early on. I left a lot of putts short but all in all I feel well on the golf course and it's a good first two days."
Defending champion Wu Ashun, who became the first Chinese player to win a European Tour event on home soil 12 months ago, is four under par with seven holes remaining, with the halfway cut projected to fall at two under.
