Sun Yang Blisters Through Day One 200 Free at Chinese Nationals [video]

Results from Chinese swim meets are notoriously hard to find, but thanks to a source within the Chinese swimming community, we have been able to track down results from Wednesday’s first day of the long course Chinese National Championships .

Sun Yang continues to build his domestic legacy by being one of the few big-name swimmers to compete at Nationals. His first day event was the 200 free, where he put up a great 1:45.53 in the 200 free. That swim ties with one of Michael Phelps’ performances from worlds as the 10th-best this year (though Yang was better at spring Nationals).

Video of the race is below, courtesy of CCTV

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMjQeUOVwJ8

The rest of the meet was a display of great depth by the Chinese. With many of the swimmers from their World Championship meet either absent or swimming off of rest, just as we saw at USA Nationals, the next-tier of athletes who will be fighting for Olympic spots got a chance to shine.

In the women’s 100 backstroke, for example, Fu Yuanhui posted a 1:00.68 in the 100 back that moved her into the world’s top 30. That blew away her silver-medal swim from last month’s World Junior Championships in Peru by half-a-second, and at only recently 15-years old, she has huge potential in London (if she can catch Gao Chang and crack the squad) and Rio beyond. Zhao Yanxin (1:00.70) and World-leader Zhao Jing (1:00.73) touched just behind her.

The Chinese medley saw some encouraging signs in the 100 fly final, which is an event that they’ve typically struggled greatly in. The National Record Holder Zhou Jiawei took the win in 52.43, which gives him the fastest time by a Chinese swimmer this year (clearing the old top mark by 7-tenths). In fact, from the information we were able to glean, we saw at least the three fastest flat-start times from China at this meet, including a 52.64 from Zhang Qibing and a 52.77 from Chen Weiwu. Zhou was the top finisher for the Chinese at Worlds, though there he was 8-tenths slower.

The other big result on the day was in the women’s 400 IM, where Li Xuanxu swam a 4:37.48. That’s a touch slower than she was at Worlds, but is still a very good time for the second taper of the season in an endurance event.

Full Medal Results Below

M 200 Free

Sun Yang 1’45”53
Li Yunqi 1’47”71
Zhang Zhongchao 1’48”75

W 50 Breast

Liu Xiaoyu 31”55
Zhao Jin 31”72
Suo Ran 32”01

M 100 back

Cheng Feiyi 54”42
Sun Xiaolei 54”89
He Jianbing 55”10

W 200 Fly

Zhu Jiani 2’07”89
Gong Jie 2’08”16
Li Tingting 2’08”47

M 100 Breast

Ma Xiang 1’01”33
Lai Zhongjian 1’01”49
Xie Zhi 1’01”56

W 100 Back

Fu Yuanhui 1’00”68
Zhou Yanxin 1’00”70
Zhao Jing 1’00”73

M 100 Fly

Zhou Jiawei 52”43
Zhang Qibing 52”64
Chen Weiwu 52”77

W 400 IM

Li Xuanxu 4’37”48
Jiao Liuyang 4’39”72
Zhu Xiaoya 4’39”83

M 4×100 FR

Beijing 3’20”99
Zhejiang 3’21”27
Shanghai 3’21”58

W 4×100 FR

Shanghai 7’59”60
Shandong 8’00”89
Zhejiang 8’01”57