Xu Jiayu Sweeps The Backstroke Events at Chinese Spring Nationals

After a fast week in China, several stars have been welcomed back into the limelight. The biggest story lines from this weekend come from the backstrokers, Fu Yuanhui and Xu Jiayu. Fu Yuanhui won several backstroke events for the women, many of which were among the fastest times in the world this year. She was ranked third in the world in the 100 backstroke at the beginning of this meet, so many expected a performance of this caliber from her. Xu Jiayu, on the other hand, is arguably the breakout performer of the year, not just in China, but arguably the whole world.

Xu Jiayu initially broke out as a 200 backstroker as China’s 2nd backstroker (behind Zhang Fenglin) back in 2012.  He topped Zhang at last year’s all important National Games, but after some excellent swims in the sprint event at this meet, we might see him shift his focus to the 100 given his new found speed.  He is in someway like Zhao Jing who also started out as a 200er but was later more famous for her 100.

After winning the 50 and 100 backstrokes earlier this week, he completed the backstroke sweep today with a monstrous 200 swim.  His winning time of 1:55.11 from today is more than 5 seconds faster than he was two years ago in London, and looks to be another very promising young talent (he’s just 18 years old) for China.  His 100 time from this week was only tenths of Matt Grevers’ gold medal winning time from London two years ago and would have been fast enough to win the event at the 2013 world championships.

Also this evening, Xin Xin and Bi Yirong moved into the top ten in the world in the women’s 800 freestyle, with Xin clocking in at 8:25.35 (good for sixth in the world) and Bi finishing at 8:26.49 (seventh).  Shi Yang (men’s 50 fly, 23.94), Suo Ran (women’s 50 breast, 31.57), and Yu Hexin (men’s 100 free, 49.25) were the other individual winners on the day.

Day 5 Chinese Spring National Championships

Men 50 Fly

1. Shi Yang, Shanghai 23″94
2. Zhang Qibing, Shandong 23″95
3. Sun Xiaolei, Shanghai 23″97

Women 50 Breast

1. Suo Ran, Navy 31″57
2. He Yuzhe, Zhejiang 31″66
3. Shi Jinglin, Jiangsu 31″75

Men 100 Free

1. Yu Hexin, Guangdong 49″25
2. Hao Yun, Hebei, 49″67
3. Xu Qiheng, Jiangsu, 49″91
4. Liu Zhaocheng, Beijing 49″91

Women 800 Free

1. Xin Xin, Shandong 8’25″35
2. Bi Yirong, Zhejiang 8’26″49
3. Xu Danlu, Ningxia 8’38″27

Men 200 Back

1. Xu Jiayu, Zhejiang 1’55″11 NR
2. Li Guangyuan, Zhejiang 1’59″15
3. Shi Yi, Zhejiang 1’59″76

Women 4×100 MR

1. Navy, 4’06″37
2. Guangdong, 4’07″16
3. Shanghai, 4’07″19