Zhang Yufei Puts Up 56.49 100 Fly At Spring Grand Prix In Shanghai

2022 SPRING GRAND PRIX (CHN)

• Thursday, April 28th
• Shanghai, China
• LCM (50m)
• Results – Asian Media

If you’ve been following our Asian swimming coverage, then you know that the Chinese National Swimming Championships originally set to be held in April were postponed due to coronavirus concerns.

As such, China’s elite swimmers are taking advantage of every racing opportunity in order to prove their worth and earn a spot on the 2022 World Championship roster. A spot on the Asian Games team was also in their sights before the competition was postponed last week.

With this in mind, the 24-year-old Olympic champion Zhang Yufei raced at her Shanghai Swimming team’s Spring Grand Prix late last month, putting up some solid performances.

Zhang’s top swim came in the women’s 100 fly, where she clocked in at 56.49 in the prelims to approach the 56.24 world-leading effort she logged at September’s National Games. She nearly matched her time from the heats in the final, touching in 56.56.

Zhang had the best year of her career by a mile in 2021, winning gold at the Tokyo Olympic Games in the women’s 200 fly and 800 free relay in addition to silver in the 100 fly and mixed 400 medley relay.

Also according to Asian media, Zhang posted a 200m free time of 1:59.18 to win the event, while Qin Haiyang clocked 1:59.14 to win the men’s 200m IM. For Qin, that swim is less than two-tenths shy of what he went to tie for 26th at the Olympics last summer (1:58.95).

Qin also snagged a solid 200m breast mark of 2:08.44, rendering the 22-year-old the seventh-fastest performer in the world this season.

Qin been as quick as 2:07.35 in his career, a result he achieved in 2017 to remain as China’s national record holder for the past 5 years.

At last summer’s Olympics, Qin clocked 2:08.48 in the prelims before being disqualified, losing a spot in the semi-finals where he would’ve qualified in a tie for fourth overall.