2021 CHINA NATIONAL GAMES
- Sunday, September 19th – Saturday, September 25th (swimming)
- Xi’an Olympic Sports Center Swimming and Diving Hall, Shaanxi, China
- LCM (50m)
- SwimSwam Preview
- Recap #1
- Recap #2
- Entries/Results
A new national record bit the dust on day 4 of these 2021 China National Games and it came in the women’s 200m freestyle.
18-year-old Tang Muhan busted out the swim of her life to clock a time of 1:54.26 and take gold ahead of fellow freestyle ace Yang Junxuan. Yang settled for silver just a hair off in 1:54.48 while Lao Lihui hit 1:57.27 for bronze.
As for Tang’s swim, the teen opened in 57.17 and remarkably brought it home in 57.09, natively splitting the race to put up the fastest time of her career. She held her own against Yang who opened in 56.52 to set the pace, although she fell off slightly to wind up in 2nd place.
Yang was the previous national record holder in this LCM 200 free, having clinched a time of 1:54.37 as lead-off on the women’s 800m free relay. China ultimately won gold in that relay event, registering a new World Record in the process. Tang was also a member of that relay, positioned as the 2nd swimmer and registering a solid 1:55.00, the 2nd fastest behind Yang.
Yang wasn’t as productive individually, however, as she produced a time of 1:55.01 for 4th place. Li Bingjie was China’s other 200m freestyle in Tokyo and she missed out on the semi-final.
Tang also raced the women’s 400m free in Tokyo, placing 5th while teammate Li took the bronze.
Tang’s 1:54.26 2free outing here would have rendered her the bronze medalist at this summer’s Olympic Games, beating out Canadian Penny Oleksiak’s 1:54.70.
Interestingly, Tang Muhan (who won the 400 free in a PB 4:01.95 the other day), Yang Junxuan and bronze medalist Lao Lihui are all students of Shenzhen University.
This is an incredibly fast time
This is a new junior world record
According to wikipedia she’s 18.
This is how to swim a 200 free… when the men figure it out we will see those 1:43s in the big meets again.
Even Biedermann in a super suit was out 50.1 on his way to 1:42.00 and that’s with the magical ability to not fatigue or lose body position those suits provided. Agnel was 50.6 on his way to going 1:43.14. He was one of only 2 men to have ever gone 1:43 in textile. Phelps was out comparatively slower splitting 51.00/52.86, but his base in 2007 was unparalleled, and he had one of the dirtiest undies ever coming off his last wall.
Thorpe and Agnel have talked about how men were swimming the 200 wrong and needed to get out faster, and that finally happens and we have the fastest international final ever. The answer isn’t to go back to taking… Read more »
27.95 last 50 wtf
Just another person who can close faster than 30.69.
(Tbf it’s faster than 6/8 of the Olympic finalists in the men’s 200 IM, only Wang Shun and Duncan Scott were quicker)