Day 7 in Zhangzhou, China, at the 2013 Chinese National Championships saw the brakes pump a little bit on the previous record-breaking clip.
There was, however, still a great swim in the men’s 100 butterfly. There, Zhou Jiawei, the National Record holder in the event, swam a 52.11 to jump to the top of the world so far in 2013. He was followed by Shi Feng (52.64) and Zhang Qibin (52.71).
In other finals, Ye Shiwen won the women’s 200 backstroke in 2:09.12, followed by Fu Yuanhui in 2:10.01. That’s a third individual title for Shiwen, though it comes in her weakest of five entries at this meet. She won’t contend for any Worlds medals with that swim, but given that this backstroke is not the strongest part of her IM, the result is still a strong one.
In the men’s 50 free, Ning Zetao won in 22.41, with Lu Zhiwu touching 2nd in 22.61. That’s not a bad time for the young Zetao, however after swimming a 22.0 in prelims, he was within reach of the Asian Record in the race.
And finally, in the women’s 800 free, 14-year old distance phenom Xu Danlu won the women’s 800 free in 8:25.09, beating Shao Yiwen, who was 2nd in 8:29.14. Danlu has been faster than that (she was actually 8:22 as a 13-year old), but the Chinese federation will continue pushing her as their answer to American Olympic Champion Katie Ledecky over the next decade or so of distance swimming.
Finally, Lu Ying won the women’s 50 fly in 26.66, followed by Jiao Liuyang (27.17) and Liu Lan (26.92).
The meet will wrap on Monday with two hugely-anticipated races, the men’s 1500 with Sun Yang and the women’s 400 IM with Ye Shiwen.
i think the caption should say a world leader in the 100 fly, not the 100 free