Olympic Champion Pan Zhanle Tries 50 Butterfly On For Size At Chinese Nationals

2025 CHINESE NATIONALS

• Friday, September 5th –
• Chengdu, China
• LCM (50m)
• Day 1 Recap
• Results via Asian Media

Day one of the 2025 Chinese Nationals gave us a new World Junior Record, courtesy of Zhang Zhanshuo in the men’s 400m free.

Day two was a little less on the fireworks side, although there were still notable performances by some of the nation’s Olympic and World Championships swimmers.

Yu Yiting claimed victory in the women’s 200m IM, producing a podium-topping result of 2:09.38. That was well outside her lifetime best of 2:07.75 from the 2023 Asian Games, but enough to get the win here.

At just 20 years of age, Yu already has an impressive resume of international podium spots. Among her accolades are two relay bronze medals from the 2024 Olympic Games, as well as a pair of bronze medals more recently at this year’s World Championships in Singapore.

On the men’s side, Xu Fang got to the wall first in the 50m fly, hitting 23.66 to narrowly defeat a tight pack.

Shen Jiahao was next in 23.69 while 100m free Olympic champion and world record holder Pan Zhanle bagged the bronze in 23.80.

Xu has been as quick as 23.59 in his career, so tonight’s performance was just .07 outside that benchmark. Shen shaved .01 off his previous PB of 23.70 from May while 21-year-old Pan’s 23.80 represents a lifetime best.

Pan is now China’s 20th-best performer of all time.

Zheng Yinghao was one of two sub-minute swimmers in the men’s 100m breast final this evening.

Zheng posted 59.79 to beat Dong Zhihao by a fingernail. Dong settled for silver in 59.82 while Olympic medalist Wang Shun, racing in this off-event, logged 1:01.30.

20-year-old Dong was the 2024 world champion in the 200m breast but missed making both the 100m and 200m breast final at this year’s World Championships.