Chinese National Championships Day 1: Li Bingjie, Pan Zhanle Lead Four Olympic Qualifiers
Four swimmers qualified for the 2024 Paris Olympics on the first day of the Chinese national championships.
There were two qualifying finals on Friday and two semifinals on the schedule for the opening day of competition.
In the men’s 400 freestyle, Pan Zhanle and Zhang Zhanshuo qualified, while the women’s 400 free saw Li Bingjie and Liu Yaxin qualify.
Li Bingjie won the 400 free in 4:04.03, while Liu Yaxin was just behind at 4:04.88. Yang Peiqi took the bronze in 4:05.25.
In the men’s 400, Pan Zhanle won the gold in 3:45.58, followed by Zhang Zhanshuo (3:45.82). Fei Lewei took the bronze in 3:45.96.
There were also two event semifinals on Day 1 of the Chinese national championships, the men’s 100 breaststroke and the women’s 100 butterfly.
In the men’s 100 breaststroke semifinal, Qin Haiyang took the top spot in 58.62, followed by Sun Jiajun (59.14) and Dong Zhihao (59.61).
The women’s 100 butterfly semifinal saw Zhang Yufei take the top seed in 56.47. Wang Yichin was second in 57.55 and Yu Titing took the third seed in 57.61.
The top semifinalists will battle it out in the finals on Saturday on Day 2 of the Chinese national championships with another slate of semifinals, following a prelims session to open the morning at the meet.
After the Chinese women being DQ’d because of drugs in the Tokyo 200m Freestyle and learning that 23 of their pre Tokyo team having positive tests that were all supposedly mysteriously ‘contaminated ‘ rendering them useless. Questions must be asked of these championships and their participation in Paris.
Is this the new East Germany?