Qin Haiyang Scorches 58.66 100 Breast At Chinese Spring Nationals (Video)

2025 CHINESE NATIONAL SPRING SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Tuesday, March 18th – Sunday, March 23rd
• Qingdao, Shandong Province, China
• LCM (50m)
• Day 1 Recap/Day 2 Recap
• Results via Asian media

The 2025 Chinese National Spring Swimming Championships continued from Qingdao with additional impressive performances seen on both the men’s and women’s sides.

As a reminder, this competition is merely a tune-up opportunity for Chinese athletes as their World Championship Trials are on the calendar for May.

The men’s 100m breast saw the top two performers clear the 59-second barrier, led by Olympian Qin Haiyang.

25-year-old Qin, the world record holder in the 200m breaststroke event, fired off a time of 58.66 to clinch the gold.

That held an advantage over Sun Jiajun who captured the silver in 58.98 while reigning 200m bresat world champion Dong Zhihao rounded out the podium in 59.64.

Qin owns a lifetime best of 57.69 in this event, a time he produced at the 2023 World Championships to become the 2nd-fastest performer ever, across all nations. Sun has been as quick as 58.73 in his career.

Qin’s time tonight would have earned the gold medal at the 2024 Olympic Games, beating Italian Nicolo Martinenghi‘s 59.03 podium-topper. In Paris, Qin finished 7th in a relatively disappointing outing of 59.50.

Qin and Sun now represent the top 2 performers in the world on the season.

Race Video courtesy of @swimcoverage

🇨🇳全国春季游泳锦标赛
男子100Br
覃海洋 58.66
孙佳俊 58.98
董志豪 59.64 ​​​

2人が58秒台！
🇨🇳Qin Haiyangと🇨🇳Sun Jiajinがパリ五輪優勝タイムを上回る記録！！ pic.twitter.com/aXHEdzmtMN

— 競泳NEWS (@swimcoverage) March 20, 2025

19-year-old Olympic relay multi-medalist Yu Yiting put on a show in the women’s 400m IM, hitting a winning result of 4:36.63.

That time came just over a second outside of the lifetime best of 4:35.44 she established at the 2023 Asian Games.

Yu is entered in a massive program of 11 events at this competition and has already reaped 50m fly gold in addition to silver in the 200m IM and silver in the 100m free.

Her 4IM performance checks her in as the #2 swimmer in the world this season.

Peng Xuwei turned in a time of 2:06.54 in the women’s 200m backstroke to establish a new lifetime best as tonight’s gold medalist.

Entering this competition, 22-year-old Peng’s PB rested at the 2:06.74 produced at the 2023 World Championships, so she sliced .20 off to claim the gold here.

She remains China’s #2 performer in history, sitting behind Zhao Jing‘s national record of 2:06.46 from nearly 15 years ago.

But Peng wasn’t alone in sub-2:07 territory as 25-year-old Liu Yaxin busted out an effort of 2:06.71 for silver. That overtook her previous PB of 2:07.35 notched at this same meet 2 years ago. She remains China’s #3 swimmer ever.

Peng and Liu take the top 2 spots in the season’s worldwide rankings.

Additional Winners

• 27-year-old Ji Xinjie grabbed gold in the men’s 200m free, clocking a new season-best of 1:46.76. That led the field in the only sub-1:47 performance, as He Yubo and Xu Haibo reaped the minor medals. The former touched in 1:47.58 to the latter’s 1:47.73. Ji’s effort renders him the world’s 4th-swiftest performer this season.
• The men’s 200m fly saw Zhang Zhanshuo notch a gold medal-worthy 1:56.60 to clear the field by nearly one and a half seconds. Zhang’s time represents a new lifetime best and checks him in as China’s 10th-best performer of all time.
• Wu Qingfeng led the women’s 50m free field, stopping the clock at 24.44. That eked out the win over Cheng Yujie who settled for silver. Liu Shuhan was also sub-25 in 24.88 as the bronze medalist. Wu and Cheng lead the world rankings as a result of tonight’s race.