A pair of National Records were broken on Day 2 of the 2015 Chinese National Championships on Friday in Baoji, as new blood began to creep into a national system that seemed a bit stagnant in 2013 and 2014.
The first record came in the men’s 100 breaststroke final, where Li Xiang swam a 1:00.13, which broke the 1:00.31 done by Xie Zhi in 2013. Zhi, now 28-years old, didn’t even place in the top three in this event, but that time by Xiang is another step forward for a Chinese medley relay that has not historically been as impressive as their 800 free relay – the medley placed just 10th at Worlds in 2013.
Yan Zibei took 2nd in 1:00.68, and Wang Lizhou placed 3rd in 1:00.77.
Two events later, Yu Hexin broke another National Record in the men’s 50 fly when he swam 23.37. That broke both the Chinese Record and the Asian Record, both of which belonged to a tie between Zhou Jiawei from 2009 and Wu Peng from 2013, who each swam 23.43. Hexin has historically been best known as a sprint freestyler, so whether he does anything significant in the 100 fly later in the meet (or even swims it) remains up in the air. At last year’s meet, he won the 50 free and beat out the National Record holder Ning Zetao in the process.
While the men’s races took the headlines, there were solid, though maybe not spectacular, swims in the two women’s finals on the day. Chen Xinyi defended her 100 meter fly title, swimming 57.80. That’s about four-tenths slower than she was at this meet last year, but was still enough to fight back Lu Ying (57.96) in a deep, if aging, Chinese butterfly group.
The time moves her up to 6th in the world this year.
2014-2015 LCM Women 100 Fly
SJOSTROM
55.64*WR
| 2 | Jeanette OTTESEN | DEN | 57.04 | 08/02 |
| 3 | Kelsi WORRELL | USA | 57.24 | 07/16 |
| 4 | Emma McKEON | AUS | 57.31 | 04/03 |
| 5 | Ying LU | CHN | 57.36 | 08/02 |
| 6 | Madeline GROVES | AUS | 57.44 | 04/03 |
And finall, closing the session, Ye Shiwen won in her second-best event, the 200 IM, with a 2:11.46, which slots her in 7th in the world (though she’s within two-tenths of 4th).
Full Day 2 finals top three finishers below.
Men 100 Breast
Li Xiang 1’00″13 (NR)
Yan Zibei 1’00″68
Wang Lizhuo 1’00″77
Women 100 Butterfly
Chen Xinyi 57″80
Lu Ying 57″96
Zhou Yilin 58″64
Men 50 Butterfly
Yu Hexin 23″37 (AR)
Li Zhuhao 23″79
Shi Yang 23″89
Women 200 IM
Ye Shiwen 2’11″46
Zhang Sishi 2’12″57
Wang Xinyun 2’14″52
Also one thing to note – both Li (just 15 at the Asian Games last year remember and splitting 51.4) and Ning are clutch relay swimmers. They hauled in Japan like bats out of hell in the Games. Lots of pride and guts coming with those swimmers, and I back them to perform under pressure.
China definitely getting there. Even if Ning just repeats his 46.91 split from the Asian games, the way Xu and Li are developing they will drop a bit of time there, and they will massively gain from the new breastroker. That puts them right into 3:29 – 3:30 contention for medals.
While I agree China’s men’s medley relay has tremendous potential and looks daunting on paper, I agree with Philip Johnson that they have to all put together great swims on the right day to actually win the medal. I don’t trust China’s coaches to pull off the feat, frankly. I’ve always thought the performances of China’s swimmers were inconsistent in the past, especially in meets outside China; but now I think any blame for that inconsistency falls on their coaches. Does China have talented swimmers? Absolutely! Will they win at the big meet? Maybe, maybe not. The same can be said of all swimmers and their coaches, I know, but I think it’s more true when talking about China. There… Read more »
They would ” STILL ” bring it on strongly to go faster than Grevers ( or Murphy ) / Cordes – Miller – Fink / Shields – Phelps – Conger / Adrian . Usa has still the best medley for now … we will see if that chenges this summer . Japan is outrageously dangerous on the medley except for the last leg ( they miss a great freestyler ) , and France is becoming very dangerous .
So far , at Pan Pacs or Barcelona , Usa was head and shoulders ahead of anyone on the last leg .
Still , i would love to see China do something special on the medley – that would add… Read more »
Re: Japan
If there were an 800 medley relay, Japan would be obscenely good. Irie on back, whichever of Japan’s 200 breaststrokers happens to be hot at the moment (Koseki, probably), Seto/Matsuda on the fly (Seto, lately), and Hagino closing it out with free.
I don’t want to look at times or do the math right now, but my guess is that would be a pretty close race with the USA: Murphy/Clary on back, Cordes on breast, Seliskar/Shields on fly, and then Dwyer/Phelps/Lochte on free.
If there is a country that’s going to beat USA in the medley relay this year or next, its going to be China. They’re the only country with potentially 2 legs stronger than US, while the other two are relatively strong. most importantly, all legs are gaining momentum towards’16.
The third placer is Wang Lizhuo, born in 1999, at 00.77. I am actually putting my money on him. I think he will be the one to go to Kazan as he cleared the A mark at semifinal with a time of 00.38, while the runner-up in the final didn’t make the A mark.
“Yan Zibei took 2nd in 1:00.68, and Zhou Yilin placed 3rd in 58.64.” Seems to be an error there.
Anyway, China’s men’s medley is coming up well. I’d still call them an outside shot for a medal this summer, but who knows what they’ll be able to pull off come Rio.
This is very encouraging news for China – and bad news for the rest of the world for the Medley Relay. China has always struggled when it comes to breastroke – if their new guy can split a 59-mid, then their relay team combined with Xu on back, Li (Zhuhao) on fly and Ning on freestyle is very serious.
Also, important to note the PB for Li in the 50m fly. He’s only 16 (possibly even 15, I’m not sure when his birthday was but he was 15 at the Asian Games) – which bodes very well for him in his signature 100m fly where he took silver behind Schooling at the Games.
Also very interesting to see Yu’s progress… Read more »
It does appear China is starting to catch up with the rest of the world. Time will tell if they can put it together at the same time however. Also, do they have the depth to compete?