Yu Hexin Lights It Up With 21.83 50 Free Prelim

CHINESE OLYMPIC TRIALS #1

• Friday, April 30th – Saturday, May 8th
• Qingdao, China
• Primary Olympic Qualifier
• LCM (50m)
• Results via Asian Media

Competing on day 7 of the Chinese Olympic Trials #1, on-fire Zhang Yufei busted out the fastest 50m freestyle time of her career to snag the top spot for tomorrow’s semi-final.

Cracking a time of 24.41, Zhang overtook her own previous career-quickest of 24.83 from 2017. That was produced at that year’s National Games. As such, she hacked .42 off of that previous result to become China’s 2nd fastest woman of all-time.

Zhang’s 24.41 checks her in just behind China’s national record-holding Liu Xiang who owns the fastest time ever for her nation in 24.03 from the 2020 FINA Champions Series.

Top 5 Chinese Women’s LCM 50 Freestyle Performers All Time

1. Liu Xiang, 24.03 2020
2. Zhang Yufei, 24.41 2021
3. Le Jingyi, 24.51 1994
4. Chen Xinyi, 24.53 2016
5. Zhu Menghui, 24.65 2017

On the season, Zhang falls just outside the top 10 performers worldwide, with the semi-finals and final yet to go.

The men’s 50m free also saw a head-turning performance, with Yu Hexin ripping a big-time 21.83 in the heats of that event.

Beating the field by well over half a second, Yu’s time checks in as the 2nd best of his career, sitting only .04 shy of his 21.79 national record. He set that slightly faster mark just last September at China National Championships and both that performance and tonight’s represent his only ventures under the 22-second barrier.

With his 21.83 performance here, Yu joins the ever-growing list of Olympic contenders, now slotted as the 10th fastest man in the world, tying American Caeleb Dressel.