Chen Juner Rattles Men’s 100 Fly National Record On Day Seven Of Chinese Nationals

2025 CHINESE NATIONAL SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS

• May 17-24, 2025
• Shenzhen, China
• LCM (50 meters)
• Day 1 Recap/Day 2 Recap/Day 3 Recap/Day 4 Recap/Day 5 Recap/Day 6 Recap
• Results

The penultimate night of racing took place tonight at the 2025 Chinese National Swimming Championships, with the nation’s best looking to add their names to the World Championships lineup for Singapore.

World record holder and Olympic champion Pan Zhanle already qualified in the 100m, 200m and 400m freestyle events and tried to make the grade in the 50m free this evening.

20-year-old Pan stopped the clock at a time of 22.19 to get to the wall first, falling short of the 22.05 World Aquatics ‘A’ standard. With his other qualifications, however, it’s most likely Pan will be among the men’s 50m free field in Singapore.

Behind Pan in the final was He Junyi who produced 22.23 followed by Chen Hao who notched 22.27.

Pan’s lifetime best in this event remains at the 21.92 he produced at the 2022 Asian Games, postponed to 2023 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The women’s 50m fly final saw Wu Qingfeng get it done for gold, putting up a winning time of 25.77 in the tight affair.

Just .03 behind was Wang Yichun who settled for silver in 25.80 while 6-time Olympic medalist from Paris Zhang Yufei bagged the bronze in 25.88.

A mark of 26.23 represents the World Aquatics ‘A’ standard needed for Singapore, so the women cleared that threshold in spades.

In fact, winner Wu’s time tonight checks in as a monster lifetime best, destroying her previous PB of 26.32 notched at the 2023 Chinese Championships. She now becomes China’s 5th-fastest performer in history as well as the 11th-best performer in the world at the moment.

22-year-old Peng Xuwei ran away with the women’s 200m backstroke title this evening, registering a gold medal-worthy performance of 2:07.63.

Peng split 30.11/32.32/32.33/32.87 en route to beating the pack by well over a second.

Liu Yaxin was next to the wall in 2:09.09 as the only other sub-2:10 swimmer, with Qian Xinan rounding out the podium in 2:10.45.

While Peng and Liu handily cleared the ‘A’ cut of 2:11.08, both women were significantly faster at the Chinese Spring Nationals in March. At that competition, Peng put up a big-time 2:06.54 and Liu hit 2:06.71 to insert themselves into the all-time Chinese performers list in slots #2 and #3, respectively.

The men’s 100m fly was also among tonight’s finals, with 21-year-old Chen Juner roaring to the wall first in a time of 51.03 to establish a new meet record.

Chen opened in 23.76 and closed in 27.27 to hold off the field, one which included Xu Fang.

The Chinese men won Olympic gold in the 400 medley relay at last year’s Olympic Games by about .55 seconds over the Americans. The weak leg for that relay, if there was one, was Sun Jiajun‘s 51.19 butterfly split, which was well behind the 49-point splits for the silver medal American and bronze medal French relays.

Juner’s swim, though, closes that gap a little bit ahead of Singapore.

Xu was the runner-up in 51.51 and Wang Xizhe rounded out the podium in 51.86. Sun Jiajun was also sub-52 in a mark of 51.90 as the 4th place finisher.

Both Chen and Xu dipped under the World Aquatics ‘A’ standard of 51.77 with the pair establishing personal bests in the process.

Entering this competition, Chen had been as swift as 51.72 and Wu’s PB sat at 51.83, both having been logged last year. Their new PBs now rattle the Chinese all-time rankings, with Chen’s meet record outing falling only .07 outside the national record of 50.96 Li Zhuhao put on the books in 2017.

Top 5 Chinese Men’s LCM 100 Butterfly Performers All-Time

1. Li Zhuhao – 50.96, 2017
2. Chen Juner – 51.03, 2025
3. Wang Changhao – 51.20, 2024
4. Zhou Jiawei – 51.24, 2009
5. Xu Fang – 51.51, 2025

Finally, 23-year-old Li Bingjie captured her 4th individual gold of the competition, reaping the top prize in the 800m free.

The Olympian punched a time of 8:20.68 en route to victory.

Yang Peiqi touched in 8:26.06 and Ma Yonghui earned 3rd place in 8:28.57.

Although Li’s time this evening was well outside her lifetime best and Chinese national record of 8:13.31 from the 2023 World Championships, she was still faster than the ‘A’ standard of 8:34.62 needed for Singapore.

Additional Notes

• The women’s 50m free semi-finals saw Wu Qingfeng produce a top-seeded performance of 24.56 to hold a narrow advantage over Chen Yujie who snagged the 2nd seed in 24.62 as the only other sub-25 second swimmer. Yang WenWen (25.04) and Zhang Yufei (25.10) will also be in the mix for medals tomorrow night.
• We reported how 29-year-old Xu Jiayu turned in a national record-tying time of 24.38 en route to taking the top spot in the men’s 50m backstroke semi-finals.
• Tang Qianting established a championship record en route to earning the top seed in the women’s 50m breast. The 21-year-old Olympic medalist posted 30.01 to rank 3rd in the world on the season with tomorrow night’s main event yet to come.

World Championships Qualifiers Through Day 6

• Li Bingjie – women’s 400m free, 1500m free, 200m free, 800m free
• Yang Peiqi – women’s 400m free, 1500m free, 800m free
• Pan Zhanle – men’s 400m free, 200m free, 100m free
• Fei Liwei – men’s 400m free
• Qin Haiyang – men’s 100m breast, 50m breast, 200m breast
• Dong Zhihao – men’s 100m breast, 200m breast
• Yu Yiting – women’s 100m fly, 200m IM
• Zhang Yufei – women’s 100m fly
• Yu Zidi – women’s 200m IM, 200m fly
• Zhang Zhanshuo – men’s 200m free
• Wan Letian – women’s 100m back, 50m back
• Peng Xuwei – women’s 100m back, 200m back
• Xu Jiayu – men’s 100m back, 200m back
• Tang Qianting – women’s 100m breast
• Liu Yaxin – women’s 200m free, 200m back
• Xu Fang – men’s 200m fly, 100m fly
• Chen Juner – men’s 200m fly, 100m fly
• Ma Yonghui – women’s 200m fly
• Lu Xingchen – women’s 50m back
• Wang Shun – men’s 200m IM
• Wu Qingfeng – women’s 100m free, 50m fly
• Cheng Yujie – women’s 100m free
• Lv Qinyao – women’s 200m breast
• Wang Yichun – women’s 50m fly