{"id":398891,"date":"2019-10-20T09:37:04","date_gmt":"2019-10-20T16:37:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=398891"},"modified":"2019-10-20T23:02:58","modified_gmt":"2019-10-21T06:02:58","slug":"speed-of-wang-shun-qin-haiyang-perplexes-jeremy-desplanches-at-military-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/speed-of-wang-shun-qin-haiyang-perplexes-jeremy-desplanches-at-military-games\/","title":{"rendered":"Speed Of Wang Shun & Qin Haiyang Perplexes J\u00e9r\u00e9my Desplanches At Military Games"},"content":{"rendered":"

7th Military Games, Wuhan<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

J\u00e9r\u00e9my <\/b> Desplanches\u00a0<\/strong>is not the first swimmer nor observer to scratch their heads and wonder at the peak-career-speed-and-faster times mustered by Chinese swimmers racing in home waters at odd times of the year.<\/p>\n

Back in July in Gwangju, Wang Shun<\/strong> finished the world-title race in 1:56.97 for sixth when Desplanches – in 2018 the first Swiss man ever to claim the European 200m medley crown – clocked 1:56.56 for silver behind the 1:56.14 it took Japan’s Daiya Seto<\/strong> to win the crown<\/a> in. Qin was not even there, China having entered just Wang in the race.<\/p>\n

Wuhan is home. Home crowd. Global showcase vs Military Games? Desplanches’ approach is what one might expect. For the Chinese? Time to swim big; time to show that a military camp with national teammates of late did not go to waste<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On second day of action saw Olympic bronze medallist and national champion Wang Shun<\/strong> was pressed by China teammate Qin Haiyang<\/strong> to his best effort over 200m medley, 1:56.25, since he finished third at 2017 World Championships two years after the same result at 2015 titles.<\/p>\n

Wang’s win set a championship record, while Qin clocked a lifetime best of 1:56.79 for silver and a maiden voyage inside 1:57. It was also his best since 2017, when he established the World junior record at 1:57.06. The bronze went to Desplanches in 1:58.76. Wang’s time would have demoted him to bronze at World titles – but then Wuhan was the bigger moment, apparently.<\/p>\n

\"DESPLANCHES

Jeremy Desplanches; Photo Courtesy: Deepbluemedia\/Giorgio Scala<\/p><\/div>\n

The Swiss visitor emerged from the heat of action to tell Swimming World<\/em>: \u201cWell, 1:58.7 is not that fast right now but I still got third place and I am unprepared and untapered. This year is going to be very long as I am never going to taper at all so I am going to train as long as I can until the Olympic Games because I have already qualified.”<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cAs of now the time is not bad because it is long-course and I have only been training for one month so I think it has something good. Last week I was 1:58.3 at the World Cup so it is a bit less good but to have the six-hour time difference and a lot of stuff going on here so I guess it\u2019s okay. It\u2019s not bad, it\u2019s not good, it\u2019s in between.<\/p>\n

Then came a question about an approach to Olympic year that diverted from his own and that of many world-class swimmers around the world:<\/p>\n

“But I don\u2019t like these kind of races: these guys never [this season] do these kinds of times at the World Championships but they do it here. It makes no sense. I don\u2019t get it. But this is sport so they choose when they want to perform but I am a big thinker about this because this is preparation training for everybody and they are fit as they have never been so it\u2019s weird.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It is, as Desplanches suggests, up to China what and where to prioritise but he is one of very many around the world who have wondered about choices that feel alien to him.<\/p>\n

Qin, who raced the 200m breaststroke in Gwangju but in 14th missed the final by a wide margin, led Wang on butterfly, fell back to fourth win backstroke, was back at the helm and ahead of Wang after breaststroke but the more experienced senior of the two Chinese challengers put in a 27.18 split on freestyle, to 27.83 for Qin, and the crown was his.<\/p>\n

In other action, after six golds for China win Day 1<\/a>, there were five more titles for China, leaving one each for Russia and Brazil:<\/p>\n