2018 Chinese Championships & Asian Games Selection
- Friday, April 13 – Wednesday, April 18, 2018
- Shanxi Sports Center Swimming Pool, Shanxi, China
- Full results
15-year-old Wang Jianjiahe has been exploding onto the scene this year, and she continued that rise by beating one of China’s other young rising stars – Li Bingjie – head-to-head in the 1500 free on day 1 of China’s National Championships and Asian Games Selection meet.
The 16-year-old Li was the World Champs silver medalist in the 800 last year, and remains the current world leader in the 1500 this season. Though Wang didn’t top Li’s time of 15:52.87 from last September, she did go 15:53.01 to move to #2 in the world and beat Li’s 15:58.29 for the national title.
2017-2018 LCM WOMEN 1500 FREE
LEDECKY
15.20.48*WR
| 2 | Simona QUADARELLA | ITA | 15.51.61 | 08/07 |
| 3 | Bingjie LI | CHN | 15.52.87 | 09/01 |
| 4 | Jianjiahe WANG | CHN | 15.53.01 | 04/13 |
| 5 | Ashley TWICHELL | USA | 15.55.68 | 07/29 |
The rest of day 1’s events mostly went to established talents who didn’t quite match their world-ranked times from earlier in the season. Sun Yang won the 200 free in 1:46.07, beating Ji Xinjie‘s 1:46.80. Sun is already #2 in the world this season with a 1:45.15 from September. Current world leader Xu Jiayu won the men’s 100 back in 52.72, just a tick off the 52.60 he put up in the fall. And Peng Xuwei won the women’s 200 back in 2:07.27, though that doesn’t better her 2:06.55 from October that ranks #3 worldwide.
Other wins went to Li Zhuhao in the men’s 200 fly (1:55.66) and Yu Jingyao in the women’s 100 breast (1:07.22).
Medalists from day 1:
W 1500 free:
- Wang Jianjiahe, 15:53.01
- Li Bingjie, 15:58.29
- Hou Yawen, 16:11.18
M 200 free:
- Sun Yang, 1:46.07
- Ji Xinjie, 1:46.80
- Wang Shun, 1:47.21
W 200 back:
- Peng Xuwei, 2:07.27
- Liu Yaxin, 2:09.14
- Li Haiyun, 2:11.44
M 100 back:
- Xu Jiayu, 52.72
- Li Guangyuan, 54.13
- Wang Guanbing, 54.74
W 100 breast:
- Yu Jingyao, 1:07.22
- Shi Jinglin, 1:07.36
- Zhang Xinyu, 1:07.73
M 200 fly:
- Li Zhuhao, 1:55.66
- Wang Zhou, 1:58.40
- Zhou Schuchang, 1:58.54
Actually both girls were born in 2002 and Li Binngjie is only four months older. They should be treated as girls of same age. Bingjie turned 16 a month ago and Jeanjiahe will celebrate her 16 birthday in July.
How much of importance is this meet for Chinese swimmers? It’s not the major meet of the year. So do they plan to peak twice this year or this nationals is intermediate competition? If the later is correct then times shown by Wang and Li are very impressive. This race will be nice to watch. It may look like Ledecky vs Friis in Barcelona.
Asian Games is THE major meet this year. So if this meet is the selection meet, then it’s quite important. Although in the past the selection also took into account other results.
Overall the biggest me is PAN PACS… what world are you in?
China traditionally don’t send a huge roster to Pan Pacs, usually with a focus on some younger swimmers to get experience I believe. Asian games is the premier meet of the year for them without a doubt. I’m not saying it’s more competitive, there’s just more prestige associated to it in China. Same with the Aussies and the commonwealths I guess.
Seany, I agree PAN PACS is the most competitive and biggest meet of the year. The Asian games will be the China show while PAN PACS will have the USA, AUSTRALIA, JAPAN, BRAZIL, AND CANADA.
Ehh. Japan is focusing on Pan Pacs. China will be the only significant squad at AG.
Bingjie is fearless and doesn’t like losing. The duels between her and Jianjiahe in the years to come are going to be epic and push them ever closer to Ledecky.
Let them first beat Janet Evans’ time. Thirty (30!) ago she made her personal best at 1500 and it still makes her #9 all time.
They can obviously do that on another day . This 1500 on the beginning of a national championships is not the time .
It would be nice if they enter the competition. With the departure of Friis, Boyle and probably Kapas with Carlin this competition became shallow moving into 15:50 area.
It’s not that OBVIOUS to me what their progress at this distance will look like, but it is mostly because of lack of the information. If you have access to Chinese sources and know more to make you confident to the “obvious” level then please share.
Jianjiahe And Bingjie are both faster than Evans in the 400, Bingjie is faster than Evans at the 800, and Jianjiahe went an 8:18 in season at the Grand Prix, so there’s no reason to believe she won’t be faster at this meet.
There is no counterargument against “BELIEF” argument. So let’s believe that both Li and Wang will be better than 15:52 this season. Or let’s believe that only one of this girls will go that fast so amazing Janet Evans will be still among 10 ever fastest coming into fourth decade of her 1988 world record.
Can you imagine? 1988! Even autocorrect cannot accept it and is trying to fix it thinking I’m so wrong with dates.
Calm down yeah? There’s a lot of time for a 15 and a 16 year old to beat the time of one of the best distance/middle distance swimmers of all time. Why don’t you celebrate those swims for how good they were? If you want to “complain” about anyone shouldn’t it be the established crop of swimmers who haven’t reached Evans’ times?
There are no complaints about Li and Wang in my postings. Those are swimmers that is fun to follow. Unfortunately we have very little information about them. For example: Li was very successful last year setting personal bests of highest quality in 400, 800 and 1500. Now at nationals championships she is slower than her 2017 time by 5sec. She is slower in competition against the girl that is younger than her and for sure isn’t less talented. Isn’t it a reason to be as fast as she can now?
So how should we look at this result? It is either she doesn’t care much about this meet unless her national records got beaten or she isn’t improving this… Read more »
2:07.27 is a PB for Peng Xuwei. Her time at last year’s Chinese National Championships was 2:09.55. It seems Fina got it wrong.