On-Fire Zhang Yufei Clocks China’s 3rd Fastest 100 Fly Time Ever

CHINESE LONG COURSE INVITATIONAL

• Thursday, December 31st – Sunday, January 3rd
• Shijiazhuang City, China
• LCM (50m)
• SwimSwam Preview
• Day 1 Prelims Recap
• Day 1 Finals Recap
• Results via Asian Media

Although Zhang Yufei already owns the Chinese national record in the women’s 100m fly with the 55.62 she put up just this past September, the 22-year-old was within range of that mark once again during tonight’s prelims.

While competing on day 2 of this Chinese Invitational, whose format mimics Tokyo 2020 with prelims at night followed by finals in the morning, Zhang posted a top-seeded mark of 56.18.

Although splits are not yet available, we know that the time checks-in as the 2nd fastest performance of Zhang’s career, as well as the 3rd fastest performance by any Chinese swimmer ever.

Top LCM 100 Butterfly Performances by Chinese Swimmers, All-Time:

1. 55.62 – Zhang Yufei, 2020
2. 56.07 – Liu Zige, 2009
3. 56.18 – Zhang Yufei, 2020
4. 56.29 – Zhang Yufei, 2020
5. 56.61 – Chen Xinyi, 2014

For additional perspective, Zhang’s 56.18 would have taken the silver behind winner Maggie MacNeil (CAN) at the 2019 FINA World Championships in Gwangju, Korea. Instead at that meet, Zhang produced a time of 57.93 to finish in 13th place.

Yang Junxuan also produced a super solid swim in tonight’s heats of the women’s 200m free. Stopping the clock in a time of 1:56.27, her outing here overtakes her previous season-best of 1:56.38. That was registered at September’s Chinese National Championships, rendering her the #2 swimmer in the world behind Australia’s Ariarne Titmus’ 1:55.93.

Additional Top Seeds:

• The men’s 200m breast saw Qin Haiyang land lane 4 for tomorrow morning’s final in a time of 2:10.96, while Yu Jingyao leads the women’s field in 2:23.91.
• Shen Jiahao clocked a prelims effort of 53.19 to lead the men’s 100m fly.
• Ji Xinjie was the quickest heats swimmer in the men’s 200m free, posting a mark of 1:48.29 as a warm-up.
• Backstroking ace Xu Jiayu set himself up for a potentially explosive performance in tomorrow morning’s 100m back finals. He posted a top-seeded swim of 53.07.
• Fu Yuanhui was also in the water, claiming the top spot in the women’s edition of the 1back with a sub-minute effort of 59.58. She owns the national record with her PB of 58.72 from 2017.