Day 2 of the pool swimming portion of the 2013 National Games of the People’s Republic of China wrapped on Thursday, and included the first big surprise of the meet in the women’s 400 free.
Women’s 100 fly FINALS
The 100 fly, though, continued what we’ve seen for many years now in China. They’re still not very old, but Lu Ying, Liu Zige, and Jiao Liuyang have ruled roost in Chinese women’s butterflying for half-a-decade, and that was the finish order here at the National Games.
Lu took gold in 57.04, followed by Liu in 57.51 and Jiao in 58.04.
Younger than all of those four was perhaps some new blood: 21-year old Zhou Yilin from Heibei in 4th with a 58.18. She’s generally regarded as more of a 200 butterflier, and could be looking at something in the 2:06 or 2:07 range later in the meet based upon this swim.
Men’s 100 breast FINALS
In the second final of the night, the men’s 100 breaststroke, Xie Zhi put a big hurt into a National Record that was badly in need of breaking. He won the race in 1:00.31, which knocked four-tenths of a second off of the 1:00.73 with which he won the 2009 Asian Games.
China’s men’s relays have long lagged behind their women’s at the international level, but with now Xie seeming to live up to the potential in the breaststrokes that he had when he was younger, the China’s men’s medley should begin to greatly improve (they were only 10th at Worlds, failing to final).
Li Xiayan took 2nd in the race in 1:00.84, also just missing the old National Record, and giving the People’s Liberation Army their second of four medals Thursday, after not winning any on day 1. Mao Feilian took 3rd in 1:01.07.
Women’s 400 free FINALS
This swim was the biggest upset of the day, with Cao Yue from Shanxi taking the win in 4:03.11, beating out Zhang Yuhan from the People’s Liberation Army (4:04.38) and the Asian Record holder Chen Qian from Shandong (4:04.41).
Chen Qian was not only the record holder in the race, but the defending champion, all from the 2009 edition of this meet in front of a home crowd.
As we’ve seen a lot of in this meet, this victory was a very late-breaking one. Those top three sat nose-to-nose through 300 meters before Cao accelerated to the finish in a 58.6. Cao Yue’s time would have taken a bronze medal at Worlds, where China didn’t have a swimmer even close to finaling.
Men’s 400 free Relay FINALS
Sun Yang, on his second swim of the session, kept his quest for 7 gold medals alive, as Zhejiang cruised to an easy victory in 3:15.61. As the anchor, splitting 48.14, he was not even the star of this relay, however.
That honor belong to Lu Zhiwu, who led the Zhejiang men off in a 48.33, which is a new Asian Record. That broke the 48.49 that Japan’s Takuro Fujii did in 2009, in addition to Ning Zetao’s 48.60 from the National Championships in April as the Chinese Record.
Zetao may be ready to take that record right back, however, as he posted the most impressive sprint swim in Chinese history in this relay. Anchoring the silver-medal relay of the People’s Liberation Army, and trying in vain to chase down Sun Yang, he split a 47.24 (22.0-25.2) on the anchor leg. His relay came up 2nd in 3:17.80, while Beijing took 3rd in 3:18.50.
Full, live meet results available here (in Chinese).
SEMIFINALS
- As alluded to, that relay gold medal was Sun’s swim of the night, following the semifinal of the 200 free. There, he went a casual 1:48.09 for the top seed, with Li Yunqi (1:48.76) and Xu Qiheng (1:48.98) not far behind. In his 400, we saw Sun play the preliminary rounds very easily as well, so expect him to turn up the speed in finals (though, the result shouldn’t be anything too special regardless). He’s done a good job, on a long schedule, to conserve quite a bit of energy.
- In the women’s 100 breast semifinal, Zhao Jin took the top seed in 1:08.24, but this will be a very crowded final. The top 8 swimmers and finalists were separated by only nine-tenths of a second. That includes the 2nd seed Liu Xiaoyu from the hosts Liaoning in 1:08.40 and the 3rd seed Shi Jingling from Jiangsu in 1:08.43.
- In the men’s 100 back semifinal, Xu Jiayu put up an early statement in 53.85 for the top seed over the Chinese National Record holder Cheng Feiyi in 54.42. In the least, this gives Zhejiang a shot at the men’s 400 medley relay, and at the most it could be another big upset. The battle should be basically between those two, as Zhang Yu from Beijing was well back with a 54.92 for the 3rd seed.
- In the women’s 100 backstroke, Fu Yuanhui gave Zhejiang another top seed as they continue their overall dominance of this meet. She swam a 59.36 for the top seed in the women’s 100 back, doing most of her work on the front half (28.6-30.7).She was the only swimmer under a minute, topping Liao Yali from Hunan in 1:00.39 and Zhao Jing from Hubei in 1:00.76. Jing was one of the few Chinese swimmers who really performed well at Worlds, taking gold in the 50 back in her only individual swim of the meet.
Medal Standings
Though the People’s Liberation Army and Shanghai both had very good days, Zhejiang continues to top the medal table with 4 golds: over half of those awarded in the competition so far.
| Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total | |
| Zhejiang | 4 | 0 | 1 | 5 |
| Shanghai | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4 |
| Yunnan | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Shanxi | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Army | 0 | 3 | 1 | 4 |
| Hunan | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Hibei | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Liaoning | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Beijing | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Henan | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Shandong | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Having Ning on the Zhejiang team would’ve dropped over 2 seconds from their team. Are we ready to see China put together a 3:12 relay?? It would be crazy to think that China can beat the likes of Brazil, Italy, South Africa, Germany … etc
Sun Yang Asian record in the 200 free – 1:44.47. But us swim fans were robbed of a Agnel vs Yang match up in Barcelona.
When: 1990, 1991
Where: the European Short Course Fina meet schedule. Chinese dipped away from stops on the circuit both years…there in Moscow, not there in Berlin, etc.
It happened, no disputes.
source please?
Because I found it hard to believe that the chinese swimming federation had no knowledge that there would be doping test in a major international swim meet.
I was living in Berlin and saw it myself.
I can confirm that happened. The Chinese weren’t at any meets where there was doping controls. Remember, this was the early ’90’s before the debacle that was the 1994 World Champs in Rome.
I’m afraid I too am more than a little cynical about the Chinese programme. Rome in ’94 was stupid. I’ve never seen a group of women so obviously doped. They cheated a whole bunch of women out medals and records – money, too – that was rightfully theirs. I still have a hard time forgiving that. Probably not fair but it’s the way I feel.
Unfortunately those of us with long memories will always be opposed to giving fair credit to Chineses swimmers after the serial cheating in the 1990’s and the way it affected the sport in the most awful ways, particularly on the women’s side. How many individual golds was Jenny Thompson robbed of by ‘roided out Chinese swimmers? Sorry, we are talking about a swimming federation that had whole teams turn around at the airport and chase home upon learning there would be drug tests at the destination meet. I get that they prize this meet and the athletes peak to gain rewards at it. But really, why do Chinese swimmers have such a staggering data set history of swimming mind blowing… Read more »
“a swimming federation that had whole teams turn around at the airport and chase home upon learning there would be drug tests at the destination meet.”
when/where was/were this?
http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19980108&slug=2727489
http://articles.philly.com/1998-01-22/sports/25749781_1_chinese-swimmers-chen-yan-vials
I know about the 1998 airport incidence, but they don’t answer what Joel Lin wrote:
“a swimming federation that had whole teams turn around at the airport and chase home upon learning there would be drug tests at the destination meet.”
I am sorry to extend the credibility of what I write based on what I saw. You won’t be reading in the Washington Post archives about the Chinese swim team up and leaving the gate at the airport to skip a circuit stop in 1990. I witnessed this once on a flight wait in the Moscow airport in 1990. Boarding passes and all, the Chinese delegation swooped away from the gate and out the airport security. It was repeated to me that they were avoiding a meet stop where there would be drug testing.
Wow if you really think about it Suns anchor leg was one of the most impressive things ive ever seen. A guy that can go 48.14 in the 100 m freestyle and can hold the world record in the 1500 m at the same time is just insane. Its even faster then the Americans anchor leg at Worlds.
The american anchor in Barcelona was slow.
12 years ago, Thorpe already swam 47.2 anchor and held WR in 800.
It’s interesting to note that the Chinese are sub par in the breast events and Japanese have breaststrokers galore. Different training culturally?
When I was in China, everyone in the pool with me was swimming breaststroke (including the little kids), and barely anyone was doing any freestyle (as compared to the US). I would expect to see Chinese breaststrokers rise signficantly in the upcoming years
At my school. there is a large contingent of Chinese international students. When I swim at the pool and they’re there, all I see them swim is breaststroke. This Korean student I swim with pointed that out to me.
47.2 split by Zetao. he could be the first Asian man to break 48 seconds in the 100.
Awhile back, someone on here who had lived in China and/or may have been Chinese themselves said that their swimming and other sports priorities in order were: 1)Asian Games 2) Chinese National Games 3) Olympics 4) World Championships and everything else. The exception being the Beijing Olympics. He said that it mirrored their politics; China being somewhat more insular and, while actively involved in international commerce, relatively less concerned about their global image, while fiercely jockeying for political power within the country and perhaps among their East Asian neighbors.
Folks may be suspicious, but in reality they’re just a very different culture with different priorities. Based on what I’ve read before, these are not surprising results at all.
This. Thank you very much mate for nice and clear response.
I think the priority nowadays goes as follow: 1) Olympic Games 2) Chinese National Games 3) World Championship 4) Asian Games. Olympic Games are important not only because of its prestige and financial rewards, but medals earned at Olympic Games are doubly counted in the National Games medal table. For example, Sun Yang has already contributed 5 gold medals before the National Games even begin (2 of each for his two wins plus his world record in 1500). Chinese National Games are far more important to athletes who have little medal chance at the World Championship. Asian Games used to be big in China but since China is so far ahead in the medal table in recent additions, it has… Read more »
If the Olympics are truly their first priority, then for a country as huge as they are with such a large and nationally organized swimming program recruiting swimmers at a young age, it seems they should be doing much better at the Olympics, even dominating by now, after a couple of decades of rise to prominence in swimming, at least on the women’s side. They don’t even always seem to swim their best swimmers there, and with a few exceptions, their times tend to be off more than the average team.
It was interesting that at Junior worlds, swimmers did not even have team gear, the 4x100m Men’s medley team rocked up in 4 different tracksuits(only one of them an official chinese team tracksuit), one had duct tape over what must of been the club name on the back of his top.
Clearly very different priorities.