Cheng Yujie Leads Yu Yiting In Women’s 100 Free To Kick Off Chinese Spring Championships

2025 CHINESE NATIONAL SPRING SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS

  • Tuesday, March 18th – Sunday, March 23rd
  • Qingdao, Shandong Province, China
  • LCM (50m)
  • Results via Asian media

The 2025 Chinese National Spring Swimming Championships kicked off today from Qingdao with over 1,000 athletes expected to compete over the course of the six-day competition.

Although big guns Pan Zhanle, Xu Jiayu and Li Bingjie have opted out of the meet, we’ll have our eyes on the likes of Olympians Sun Yang, Zhang Yufei and Ye Shiwen who are entered in multiple events.

This competition serves as a stepping stone along the way to May’s Chinese Championships, the meet which serves as the primary qualification opportunity for this summer’s World Championships in Singapore. The National Games are also on the horizon, on the agenda for this November.

On day one, Zheng Huiyu led the way in the women’s 200m IM, posting a winning result of 2:12.18 to begin her campaign. 

The teen who just turned 18 in January got the edge over Yu Yiting who snagged silver in 2:12.47. 

While 19-year-old Yu owns a significantly faster personal best of 2:07.75 from when she won gold at the 2023 Asian Games, Zhen’s effort tonight was within striking distance of her PB of 2:11.63 put on the books at the 2024 Chinese Nationals.

Although this competition is not a World Championships qualifier for Chinese swimmers, both women dipped under the World Aquatics ‘A’ cut of 2:12.83 needed for Singapore.

Looking at the season’s top performers in the world, Zhen and Yu now rank 9th and 10th, respectively.

2024-2025 LCM Women 200 IM

2Abbie
WOOD
GBR2:09.9603/16
3Shiho
Matsumoto
JPN2:10.4802/16
4MIO
NARITA
JPN2:10.8601/19
5Katie
Shanahan
GBR2:10.8802/14
6Ellen
WALSHE
IRL2:11.1903/16
7Mary-Sophie
Harvey
CAN2:11.5303/08
8Freya
Colbert
GBR2:11.8702/14
9Zheng
Huiyu
CHN2:12.1803/18
10Emma
CARRASCO CADENS
ESP2:12.2503/09
View Top 26»

The women’s 100m freestyle also took place tonight with just one competitor dipping under the 54-second barrier en route to getting to the wall first.

19-year-old Olympic relay medalist Cheng Yujie got the job done, hitting a result of 53.91 for the gold. 

That was enough to hold off Yu who doubled up on her 200m IM by registering a new personal best of 54.04 to snag the silver behind Cheng. Entering this competition, Yu’s lifetime best was represented by the 54.10 notched at last year’s Chinese Championships.

As for Cheng, her career-quickest performance remains at the 53.26 nabbed in 2023, a time which rendered her China’s 5th-swiftest swimmer of all time.

Both women now enter the list of top 10 performers worldwide on the season and their times would have been good enough for Singapore.

2024-2025 LCM Women 100 Free

2Milou
van Wijk
NED53.5102/09
3Roos
VANOTTERDIJK,
BEL53.6202/09
4Rylee
Erisman
USA53.8303/06
5Cheng
Yujie
CHN53.9103/18
6Beryl
GASTALDELLO
FRA53.9202/02
7Marrit
STEENBERGEN
NED54.0103/16
8Yu
Yiting
CHN54.0403/18
9Abbey
Webb
AUS54.0611/30
10Olivia
Wunsch
AUS54.1602/14
View Top 26»

On the men’s side, a battle took place in the 100m butterfly with the top 3 performers separated by just .22.

24-year-old Sun Jiajun was first to the wall, turning in a time of 52.08, a mark just over half a second off his best-ever 51.52 from last year.

Chen Juner finished a hair behind, hitting 52.26 while Shen Jiahao also landed on the podium in 52.30.

They’ll need to step things up in May, as the World Aquatics ‘A’ standard in the event rests at 51.77 a threshold only Sun and Chen have cleared in their careers.

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Tencor
6 hours ago

Zhang Zhanshuo swam a 14:54.06 PB in the 1500 to rank 2nd in the world this season behind Wellbrock

none
7 hours ago

If we in China are still struggling to produce a top male butterfly 😭, we may have a chance to see 45. 5 in the 100m freestyle relay 😭, let’s go Panzhanle!

Last edited 7 hours ago by none

About Retta Race

Former Masters swimmer and coach Loretta (Retta) thrives on a non-stop but productive schedule. Nowadays, that includes having earned her MBA while working full-time in IT while owning French 75 Boutique while also providing swimming insight for BBC.

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