Qin Haiyang Completes Breaststroke Trifecta At Asian Aquatics Championships

11th ASIAN AQUATICS CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Sunday, September 28th – Wednesday, October 1st (swimming)
• Veer Savarkar Sports Complex, Ahmedabad, India
• LCM (50m)
• Meet Central
• SwimSwam Meet Preview
• Day 1 Recap/Day 2 Recap
• Live Results

Day three of the 11th Asian Aquatics Championships transpired last night from Ahmedabad, India with China remaining atop the swimming medal table with one finals session remaining.

As a reminder, this meet, although still prestigious, takes a backseat to November’s Chinese National Games as well as next year’s Asian Games being held in Japan.

Day Three Highlights

World record holder and world champion Qin Haiyang of China successfully completed his sweep of the men’s breaststroke events, finishing his trifecta with a victory in the 100m distance.

Qin stopped the clock at 59.07 to get the job done, beating the field by over two seconds in the process.

Qin opened in 27.70 and closed in 31.37 to top the podium. This joins his previous winning efforts of 2:09.46 in the 200m breast and 26.99 in the 50m.

Runner-up status went to Thanh Bao Pham of Vietnam who touched in 1:01.08 as a follow-up to his 200m breast bronze. Hong Kong’s Yikki Tsui rounded out the top three performers in 1:01.89.

Qin now ranks #1 in the world on the season.

China also got on the board in the men’s 400m free, with 17-year-old Xu Haibo clocking 3:49.29 to become the 400m free champion.

This gold doubled up on Xu’s previous podium-topping performance in the 200m free on day one. In that shorter event he turned in a time of 1:46.83.

Huy Hoang Nguyen of Vietnam was another multi-medalist after earning silver in the 4free in 3:51.63. He was the 1500m free champion on day two. Hoe Yean Kniew clocked 3:52.69 to give Malaysia bronze.

Hong Kong’s Wui Kiuman grabbed the gold in the women’s edition of the 100m breast, turning in a time of 1:09.12 as one of two swimmers delving under the 1:10 threshold.

Joining her was China’s Wang Yijing who snagged silver in 1:09.79 followed by Japanese athlete Koharu Nakazawa who finished in 1:10.14.

Kiuman pairs this victory with the 50m breast she won on day two in 32.04.

Just one man was under the 2:00 barrier in the 200m IM, represented by China’s Xie Yichen.

Xie, who is only 15 years of age, ripped 1:59.97, a new lifetime best. That overtook the 2:00.12 he logged earlier this year as a 14-year-old.

For perspective, the rising Chinese star’s time here in India would rank him as the fifth-swiftest U.S. male 15-16-year-old performer in history.

Behind Xie was Hsin Hao Wang who gave Taipei silver and Vietnam reaped the bronze, courtesy of Hung Nguyen Tran‘s effort of 2:02.71.

Additional Notes

• Haruno Tanimoto of Japan, 16, topped the women’s 800m free podium in 8:47.48. That rendered her the victor by a large margin, with Vietnamese swimmer Thi My Tien Vo next to the wall in 8:54.43 and Hong Kong’s Jialian Candice Gao earning bronze in 9:02.82.
• Wang Haoyu of China represented one of three sub-50-second 100m freestylers. He registered 49.19 for the gold, with 50m free champion Ali Tamer Hassan settling for sliver in 49.46. Srihari Nataraj bagged the bronze in 49.96 for the host nation.