On day 3 at Chinese Nationals in Rizhao, the swimmers continued to tear up the water with extremely fast September times. This include a near-World-Record from national hero Sun Yang in the 400 free, as well as a few other national and continental records.
Sun took down the men’s 400 free in a blistering time of 3:40.29, which makes him the third-fastest man ever in that race behind only Paul Biedermann’s World Record (3:40.07) and Ian Thorpe’s textile-best (3:40.08). He now has the two fastest times in the world this year, along with a swim from spring nationals, but still was handily beaten by Park Tae-Hwan at this year’s World Championships.
As it stands, Sun’s swim took away the Chinese and Asian Records from Zhang Lin, who is now training at USC. The old mark was set at 3:41.35 at the 2009 World Championships, where Zhang had one of the better distance meets, start-to-finish, ever. Yang cleared the rest of this field by a full 9 seconds.
Wang Shun, who yesterday broke an Asian Record of his own in the 400 IM, had a comeback swim in the 200 today. Historically, this 200 IM has been his best race, and again he looked very good in 1:58.56, which moves him up to 8th in the world (and just misses another Asian mark). This 17-year old has a lot of time to develop, and looks like he could be the next big IM’er by the time the 2016 Olympics rolls around (where he’ll be only 22).
The men continued to dominate the headlines with a National Record in the 50 back from Sun Xiaolei in 24.87. That moves him to 7th in the world this year and breaks his own record of 25.02 done in the spring. Along with the great times that the Chinese put up in the 100 fly on Thursday, this Chinese medley looks a lot better (it was previously their weakest relay). Expect Sun Xiaolei to come very close to the Chinese Record in the 100 back at next year’s Chinese Olympic Trials, where he will attempt to become the first Chinese swimmer ever under 54-seconds.
On the women’s side, Shao Yiwen continued to have an impressive meet with a 4:04.59 in the 400 free, which cuts a second off of her season-best time and moves her to 6th in the world. Just behind her was Li Xuanxu in 4:04.62, which puts her right behind at 7th in the world. Denmark’s Lotte Friis was the victim of the swims, as she was bumped down two spots to 8th-place.
In the women’s 100 breaststroke, sans the country’s two best breaststrokers, Zhao Jin took the win in 1:08.09, which is faster than she’s ever been in textile. She’s a 50 breaststroker by trade (she took silver in that race at the Asian Games last year), but has had a down year in both events up until this point. She’s going to have to drop at least another second to be competitive for the Olympic Team, but this is an encouraging step for her.
Full Results from Day 3
M 50 back
Sun Xiaolei 24″87
Cheng Feiyi 25″29
Zhang Yu 25″95
W 200 back
Zhou Yanxin 2’10″62
Zhu Jiani 2’10″99
Jiang Yiwen 2’12″40
M 50 fly
Zhang Qibing 23″97
Shi Feng 24″08
Zhou Jiawei 24″20
W 100 breast
Zhao Jin 1’08″09
Liu Xiaoyu 1’08″74
Shi Jinglin 1’08″95
M 400 free
Sun Yang 3’40″29 AR
Li Yunqi 3’49″17
Diao Jigong 3’51″43
M 200 IM
Wang Shun 1’58″56
Yang Zhixian 2’00″19
Zhang Zishan 2’01″70
W 400 free
Shao Yiwen 4’04″59
Li Xuanxu 4’04″62
Xin Xin 4’07″98
M 200 breast
Huang Chaosheng 2’12″58
Lai Zhongjian 2’12″79
Xue Ruipeng 2’13″66
W 4×100 MR
Shanghai 4’02″76
Shandong 4’04″51
Zhenjiang 4’04″54
This is the swim that he should have done in Shanghai.
Park Tae Hwan was very smart in getting himself qualified in the outer lane, away from Sun yang so he didn’t play as pace setter fro Sun Yang.
had he won the 400 in Shanghai, he would have voted as swimmingworld’s swimmer of the year.
Too bad. I really wanna see that WR go.
Yang Sun is amazing.