Day 5 at the 2011 Chinese Inter-City Championships, a youth multi-sport festival held every quadrennial in the pre-Olympic year, didn’t light up the headlines as much as previous days had, but that might partially be because we were .
In the boys 200 breaststroke, Li Xiang swam a 2:12.34 to just out-touch Huang Chaosheng in 2:12.46. The Chinese men have been pretty awful in the breaststroke events, but for Xiang that is a career-best time and puts him into the world’s top 40, which is very impressive for a junior-level swimmer. Both swimmesr were within one-or-two tenths of the Chinese National Record, set in 2010, and either should get it at next year’s Chinese Olympic Trials.
Li Tingting won the girls 200 fly in 2:09.79. She’s been faster this year.
He Jianbin swam a best time in the boys 100 free of 49.69. By cutting three-tenths off of his time, he moves up roughly 30 spots in the World Rankings into the top 100, and earns himself serious consideration for a 400 free relay spot at the Olympics. He was followed by Zeng Xianliang in 49.94. As a senior relay, those times won’t do much, but as part of a junior squad, those are two excellent bookend legs as they mature and develop.
Day 5 Medalists
Boys 200 breast
Li Xiang 2’12″34
Huang Chaosheng 2’12″46
Sun Chenwei 2’16″33
Girls 200 fly
Li Tingting 2’09″79
Li Shuang 2’11″00
Sun Lulu 2’12″26
Boys 100 free
He Jianbin 49″69
Zeng Xianliang 49″94
Liu Zhaochen 50″15
Girls 4×200 FR
Hangzhou 8’01″04
DaLian 8’04″14
Shanghai Minhang 8’06″19
