2023 CHINESE SPRING CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Sunday, March 19th – Friday, March 24th
- Qingdao, China
- LCM (50m)
- Results via Asian Media
The 2023 Chinese Spring Championships kicked off today with the meet representing one of two qualifying opportunities for Chinese swimmers to etch their names onto the roster for this year’s World Championships. The other meet is represented by the Chinese Nationals competition which is on the books for this upcoming May.
Already making his mark at this meet is Wang Shun, with the 29-year-old reaping gold across 2 events to kick off his campaign.
Wang first took the men’s 100m backstroke in a time of 54.09, beating out runner-up Wang Gukailai who settled for silver in 54.68. Both men fell shy of the World Aquatics ‘A’ cut of 54.03 needed for Fukuoka.
Wang made it happen in his second event, however, as he snagged the top prize in the 200m IM. He touched the wall in a swift 1:57.19, easily dipping under the Fukouka ‘A’ cut of 1:59.53. The silver medalist in tonight’s race did the same as Qin Haiyang logged 1:57.68 as the runner-up.
The pair now ranks 3rd and 4th in the season’s worldwide rankings in this 2IM event.
2022-2023 LCM Men 200 IM
Marchand
1:54.82
| 2 | Wang Shun | CHN | 1:55.55 | 05/01 |
| 3 | Duncan Scott | GBR | 1:55.95 | 07/27 |
| 4 | Shaine Casas | USA | 1:56.06 | 04/15 |
| 5 | Tom Dean | GBR | 1:56.07 | 07/27 |
21-year-old Olympic medalist Li Bingjie was also in the water this evening, taking on the 1500m freestyle. Li crushed the field with her winning effort of 16:04.06. She got to the wall over 21 seconds ahead of the next-closest competitor.
Her result easily beat the ‘A’ cut of 16:29.57 for Fukuoka and now ranks her 4th in the world this season.
2022-2023 LCM Women 1500 Free
Ledecky
15:26.27
| 2 | Simona Quadarella | ITA | 15:43.31 | 07/25 |
| 3 | Li Binjie | CHN | 15:45.71 | 07/25 |
| 4 | Anastassia Kirpitchnikova | FRA | 15:48.53 | 07/25 |
| 5 | Lani Pallister | AUS | 15:49.17 | 07/25 |
The women’s 200m fly also saw the top finisher earn World Championships qualification, as Yu Liyan posted a stellar result.
Yu touched in 2:08.59 to clear the field by nearly a second en route to delving under the 2:09.21 QT.
Yang Chang posted a winning result of 30.90 in the women’s 50m breast to earn qualification status.
Finally, the men’s 100m freestyle saw 17-year-old Wang Haoyu bust out the top time of his career with a head-turning 47.89. That not only qualifies him for Fukuoka but it also ranks him as the 3rd fastest performer in the world this season.
2022-2023 LCM Men 100 Free
Chalmers
47.15
| 2 | Pan Zhanle | CHN | 47.22 | 05/01 |
| 3 | Jack Alexy | USA | 47.31 | 07/27 |
| 4 | Maxime Grousset | FRA | 47.42 | 07/27 |
| 5 | Matthew Richards | GBR | 47.45 | 07/27 |
According to the World Aquatics results database, Wang’s career-best entering this meet stood at the 48.94 put up at the 2021 National Games. However, his outing here renders him just the 3rd man out of China to ever get under the 48-second barrier, joining national record holder Pan Zhanle (47.65) and Ning Zetao (47.65). Of note, Pan dropped out of this event reportedly due to a fever.
For perspective, Wang’s 47.89 outing would set a new National Age Group Record in the United States for 17-18-year-old men.
Many Chinese swimmers at 17 are phenomenal. Then at 19 they disappeared.
Wang Haoyu is only 17. This article would get a lot more clicks if you titled it as 17 year old (b. July 2005) goes 47.89 in 100 Free, or even made a separate story for his swim.
The men’s 4 x 100 is looking srong
True, Spain and China have both built pretty strong 4×1 teams in recent years
Agreed. A 17 year old going 47 is a pretty big deal.
a 17 year old going 46 is a bigger deal tho
Not really relevant is it
China HS a *lot* of up and coming talent in the men’s 100 free. Wu Mingshu and Zhang Xinchen were the fastest ever at their age before COVID hit.
Were they competing today? I remember reading about Zhang Xinchen last year, but haven’t heard of Wu Mingshu.
How fast?