12-Year Old Wang Jiayan Wins 1st Chinese National Title; Wang Jianjiahe #6

2019 CHINESE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS

Wang Jinajiahe continued to be the leading figure at this week’s Chinese National Championships. The 17-year old, who is local to Anshan, won her 6th title of the meet on Wednesday when she dominated the women’s 800 free.

Jianjiahe swam 8:30.91 for the win, beating out her teammate Hou Yawei, who took 2nd in 8:31.60. Wang is the defending World Short Course Champion in the 800 free, the defending Asian Champion in the 800 free, and took 2019 long course World Championship bronze in the 1500 free.

Wang has also won the 200, 400, and 1500 freestyles individually in addition to 2 relay medals.

The other big story of the day was the first-career national title for 12-year old Wang Jiayin in her specialty event: the women’s 200 backstroke. After a breakout swim of 2:10.79 in the event at the Chinese Youth Games a month ago, Wang Jiayin on Wednesday swam 2:10.45 to beat Liu Yaxin (2:11.41) and Peng Xuwei (2:11.55). She is now in line with a potential spot at the 2020 Olympic Games: China’s finishers at the World Championships were Liu Yaxin in 16th place (2:10.72 in prelims, 2:12.93 in semis) and Peng Xuwei in 22nd place (2:12.41 in prelims).

For the sake of comparison, the fastest female 12-year old 200 meter backstroke in US history is a 2:15.17 done by Elizabethe Beisel in 2005. The fastest by an American male at that age is a 2:10.01. Australia doesn’t keep age records for 12-year olds, but for 13-year olds, the best by a female is 2:12.04 done by Kaylee McKeown in 2015.

On the men’s side, the lone individual championship of the day was the 100 fly, where Li Zhuhao squeaked out a link in 53.43, .01 faster than runner-up Chen Chaoqi. IM specialist Wang Shun took 3rd in 53.64.

Thursday, September 12th, will be the final day of the 9-day championship meet. The Chinese have used morning finals sessions and evening prelims sessions in preparation for the Tokyo Olympic Games, which will employ the same flipped schedule.

Wednesday Semi-Final Leaders

  • M 50 free: Yu Hexin 22.72
  • W 50 free: Liu Xiang 24.77

Wednesday Finals Results

 

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ERVINFORTHEWIN
5 years ago

thats ridiculous for a 12 year old ……..hard to turn my head around that time

Swammer
5 years ago

Isnt 12 yrs, even 13 next yr, too young to compete at the Olymiic Games? I thought there was an age restriction?

marklewis
5 years ago

Is there video of the 12 y.o. prodigy swimming the 200 back in 2:10?

It would be interesting to see her performance in the race.

Yozhik
5 years ago

Doesn’t it surprise you that a flea can jump up 7” high and up to 19” long being 1/10 of inches in size.
What amazes me more then that is 2:03 at the age of just 17.
P.S. how tall is this girl and what is her weight?

Jred
Reply to  Yozhik
5 years ago

Regan Smith didn’t go close to a 2:10 at 12.

That doesn’t necessarily mean anything in terms of open success, but this girl could be a big time contender as soon as next year.

Or she could never get much faster. We will just have to wait and see.

remel can do anything
Reply to  Jred
5 years ago

do you remember wang yi chun, she didn’t improve during last 2 years. 🙂 these 2 girls come from the same team.

ERVINFORTHEWIN
Reply to  Jred
5 years ago

Chinese at lest are not well known to be that good in the 200 back …..so lets see how it unfolds in this case

Heyitsme
5 years ago

She’s probably not actually 12…

ERVINFORTHEWIN
Reply to  Heyitsme
5 years ago

lol

Tea rex
5 years ago

Related to the older Wang J?

Dee
Reply to  Tea rex
5 years ago

93 million Chinese people have the family name Wang. That’s more Wang’s in China than there are Germans in Germany. I doubt it haha.

Yozhik
Reply to  Dee
5 years ago

But you won’t probably find as many WANG’s as SMITH’s at recent international competitions.

SNY
Reply to  Tea rex
5 years ago

No, their hometowns are 960 miles apart.

Swimmer
5 years ago

Press X to doubt

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Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

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