Ning Zetao took home gold from the Asian Championships setting a new Asian record in the men’s 100 freestyle posting a time of 47.70. Today at the Chinese National Championships in Huangshan Ning once again broke the Asian record taking the event in a time of 47.65. He dominated the event winning by over a second and a half.
Sun Yang took another national title this time in the men’s 400 freestyle posting a time of 3:43.65.
Shi Jinglin, who won the bronze at the Asian Games, won gold in the women’s 200 breaststroke just missing her lifetime best of 2:22.90 posting a time of 2:22.99.
Chinese national record holder Xu Jiayu won the men’s 100 backstroke finishing in a time of 53.50.
Li Zhuhao took the men’s 100 butterfly recording a time of 52.44 while Shi Weija won the men’s 50 breaststroke touching in a time of 28.02.
Asian Games gold medalist Fu Yuanhui took the women’s 100 backstroke posting a time of 1:00.17 while Zang Yufei won the women’s 400 freestyle in a time of 4:07.11.
Splits were:
22.83
24.82
Good to see Ning working on his front end speed.
One of the comments he made in the interview was that he wasn’t expecting anything sub 49 as he had been taking things more lightly since the Asian Games. He was very pleasantly surprised and said he benefited from the extra rest, which means that he might experiment with that more for competitions in the future.
He also adamantly insisted he had much to improve in, and said that the pressure of Kazan next year was definitely motivation.
Thanks for the translation.
He looks enormous. What is his height?
Around 6’3”.
1m91
I feel this guy is the favourite to win the 100 free next year in Kazan ! not many have dipped under 48 seconds this year , right ? not even Adrian did ! wowwww , he is very good .
He will have to do that on a 3-round stage and show he can keep cool under pressure with guys as fast as him..
And do that next year, Morozov went crazy fast last year(47,62) but at Worlds did not replicate the 100 and this year also not…
And he’s not a big guy. He’ll be swimming with a bunch of very large individuals and he’s gong to get bounced around a lot when he gets to Kazan.
Exactly , he has a fast turning rate stroke ! surely he will have to face MC Evoy , Adrian , Magnussen , some Brazilians and Morozov at least ! That won’t be that easy at all .
Manaudou
Compared to McEvoy, he’s huge. And McEvoy still swam fast (Barcelona and Pan Pacs) among Adrian, Magnussen, etc.
Yeah fastest time from all the major championships. That would’ve tied Mcevoy for the 2nd fastest time over the past year. If things fall into place. China might be looking at a medal in Kazan in the men’s medley relay.
A little question. Why China has its long course national championships so late in the year and not between March and July like the other countries?
Well, the national championships are in late Spring/early Summer. This year it was in May. This meet in Fall should be translated as something like “national cup”. Officially, it is the qualification meet for next year’s nationals. So it’s a very low profile event and swimmers usually do not taper for it. In fact, established swimmers often choose not to swim their main events. For example, Ye Shiwen probably never did 200/400 IM in the fall meet. This year she entered for 100 back and 200 fly.
It’s held every Fall in Huangshan, which is a very famous scenic city. I feel it’s more of a “relaxing” meet every year after the big meet (Olympics/Worlds/Asian Games).
Thanks.
47.65 and 3.43.65 are interesting times for a “relaxing” meet! 😆
Pictures of the race and interview. In Chinese of course! I don’t understand anything but it’s probably very interesting. 🙂
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GIA0OkA4VI