2023 WORLD UNIVERSITY GAMES
- August 1-7, 2023
- Dong’an Lake Sports Park Swimming and Diving Hall, Chengdu, China
- LCM (50m)
- Meet Page
- Live Results + Schedule
- Live Stream Schedule (All Sports)
- Day 1 Prelims Live Recap | Day 1 Finals Live Recap
- Day 2 Prelims Live Recap | Day 2 Finals Live Recap
- Day 3 Prelims Live Recap | Day 3 Finals Live Recap
- Day 4 Prelims Live Recap | Day 4 Finals Live Recap
- Day 5 Prelims Live Recap | Day 5 Finals Live Recap
MEN’S 50 BREASTSTROKE – SEMIFINALS
- World Record: Adam Peaty, Great Britian – 25.95
Championship Record: Qin Haiyang, China – 26.44 (2023)
TOP 8 QUALIFIERS:
- Qin Haiyang (China) – 26.38 (Championship Record)
- Ludovico Viberti (Italy) – 27.55
- Michael Houlie (South Africa) – 27.57 (TIE)
- Alessandro Pinzuti (Italy) – 27.57 (TIE)
- Zheng Yinghao (China) – 27.59
- Jan Kalusowski (Poland) – 27.72
- Christian Bart (United States) – 27.96
- Kevin Houseman (United States) – 27.99
China’s Qin Haiyang has done it again. After shattering the Championship Record in the men’s 50 breast prelims this morning at the World University Games in Chengdu, the 24-year-old went even faster tonight in semifinals. This morning, Haiyang threw down a 26.44, taking about 0.4 seconds off the CR, which was held by South Africa’s Michael Houlie. It didn’t look like Haiyang was going to better that time tonight in the semis, however, a surge in the last 10 meters got him into the wall 0.06 seconds faster, touching in 26.38.
At this point, the newsworthy part of Haiyang is that he’s still continuing to put up all-time fast swims, despite the World Championships starting two weeks ago. His ability to hold his taper for this long is highly impressive.
Coming off his historic performance at the World Championships in Fukuoka, Haiyang wasn’t nearly as fast in the 100 breast or 200 breast this week in Chengdu. He proved that he does still have something in the tank today, however, as his times in prelims and semifinals of the 50 breast today were very close to what he did in Fukuoka.
Here is a quick timeline of Haiyang’s 50 breast performances in the past 10 days or so:
- World Champs Prelims – 26.34 (July 25)
- World Champs Semifinals – 26.20 (July 25) (Asian Record)
- World Champs Finals – 26.29 (July 26)
- WUGS Prelims – 26.44 (August 5)
- WUGS Semifinals – 26.38 (August 5)
His 26.20 from the semifinals at Worlds stands as his career best, as well as the Asian Record in the event. Though it’s not likely that Haiyang betters that time in tomorrow’s final, he was only 0.18 seconds off that mark tonight, so there is some legitimate chance he could do it.
Given that Haiyang posted the fastest time in semifinals by well over a second tonight, there can be little doubt at this point that he’ll win gold in the final tomorrow night. Assuming that happens, Haiyang will have swept the breaststroke events at a meet for the 2nd week in a row.
Is it uncommon in elite swimming to be able to hold a taper for this long and still be so close to your PB?
Or is it perhaps easier to maintain form in the 50s vs the longer strokes?
probably the latter. his best times this week are 26.38/58.42/2:08.09, and he gets further away from his pb as the distances go up, and its far more than proportional