Chinese National Championships, Day 2: Tang Qianting Blasts Asian Record 1:04.68 in 100 Breaststroke

Tang Qianting -- Photo Courtesy: Giorgio Perottino / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto

Chinese National Championships, Day 2: Tang Qianting Blasts Asian Record 1:04.68 in 100 Breaststroke

Day two of racing at the Chinese national championships saw world champions Zhang Yufei and Qin Haiyang book their spots at the Paris Games, but the standout performance came from Tang Qianting, who set an Asian record in winning the women’s 100 breaststroke.

Tang was the world champion in the 100 breast earlier this year, clocking a then-national-record time of 1:05.27 in the process. But at this Olympic selection meet, Tang chopped more than a half-second off that time as she clocked 1:04.68 in the semifinals of the event. She beat her own national record while taking down the Asian record of 1:05.19 previously owned by Japan’s Reona Aoki, and she became the No. 5 swimmer ever in the event behind Lilly King, Ruta Meilutyte, Yuliya Efimova and Jessica Hardy. Tang was already the No. 1-ranked swimmer in the world this year, and she now moves almost a second clear of the second-best swimmer, King (1:05.67).

In finals action, Qin won the men’s 100 breast in 58.24, with Sun Jiajun joining him as a Paris qualifier as he touched in 58.73. Qin moved to No. 2 in the world behind the 57.94 he clocked at the recent British Trials while Sun ranks fourth, with American Nic Fink also ahead. Dong Zhihao, this year’s world champ in the 200 breast, was third in 59.67, but he will be favored to qualify in his preferred event later on.

Zhang won the 100 fly in 56.36 while Yu Yiting also made the Olympic cut with a time of 56.82. Zhang is now tied for No. 4 in the world rankings this year with American Regan Smith while sitting behind the USA’s Torri Huske, Germany’s Angelina Kohler and the USA’s Gretchen Walsh. Yu slots into the world rankings at No. 7.

Huang Zhiwei captured first place n the men’s 400 IM, but his time of 4:16.33 missed the qualifying standard.

Pan Zhanle, who set a world record in the men’s 100 free before capturing the world title in the event at the February World Championships, led the way in the 200 free semifinals in 1:45.70, ahead of Ji Xinjie (1:46.57), Zhang Zhanshuo (1:46.78) and Niu Guangsheng (1:46.95). Pan, Ji, Zhang and Wang Haoyu led China to gold in the men’s 800 free relay at the Doha Worlds.

Veteran Xu Jiayu, who won the 100 backstroke world title in 2017 and 2019, clocked 52.40 in the semifinals of his signature event to finish well ahead of the field, while the women’s 200 free semis featured Liu Yaxin (1:56.81), Li Bingjie (1:57.10), Yang Junxuan (1:57.20) and Tang Muhan (1:57.45). Li and Liu qualified for the Paris Games Friday with a 1-2 finish in the 400 free.

The meet is taking place amid a controversy involving Chinese swimmers testing positive for banned substances in early 2021, just months in advance of the Tokyo Olympics. Both Qin and Zhang have been connected with the incident, which was attributed to contamination of testing samples. No penalties were put in place, and the swimmers were cleared to compete in Tokyo. The existence of those positive tests did not become public information until the last 24 hours.

Results

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