2025 CHINESE NATIONAL SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS
- May 17-24, 2025
- Shenzhen, China
- LCM (50 meters)
- Day 1 Recap
- Results
Day two of the 2025 Chinese National Swimming Championships brought additional powerful performances as athletes tried their best to qualify for this summer’s World Championships.
This competition represents the sole qualifying opportunity and the top two swimmers who achieve the World Aquatics ‘A’ standard in each event will be selected.
We reported how 12-year-old Yu Zidi blasted a new personal best of 2:10.63 en route to capturing silver behind winner Yu Yiting in the women’s 200m IM.
Both swimmers easily cleared the ‘A’ cut of 2:12.83 needed for Singapore, with Yu Yiting now ranked 3rd in the world and Yu Zidi ranked 14th. You can read more about this incredible race here.
The women’s 100m fly final also took place tonight, with 6-time Olympic medalist from Paris Zhang Yufei suffering a rare domestic defeat.
Topping the podium was Yu Yiting who touched in 57.30 to get the .09 edge over Zhang who settled for silver in 57.39. Wang Yichun rounded out the podium in 57.80.
Yu opened in 26.33 and closed in 30.97 compared to Zhang’s splits of 26.56/30.83. Both women handily dipped under the World Aquatics ‘A’ standard of 58.33 and will battle once again with medals on the line in Singapore.
In the meantime, Zhang said post-race that she has been working with storied Australian coach Michael Bohl, the former Griffith University head coach who retired, then moved to China to work with its national swimming association.
The men’s finals tonight included the highly anticipated 100m breaststroke, featuring world champion Qin Haiyang.
After producing a solid swim of 58.77 in last night’s semi-final, the 26-year-old went a tad faster to grab gold in 58.61.
Qin opened in 27.07 and closed in 31.54 to lead the pack, with Dong Zhihao, the reigning 200m breast world champion, snagging silver in 59.06. Sun Jiajun rounded out the podium in 59.31.
While Qin owns a lifetime best of 57.69 as the 2nd-fastest man in history, 20-year-old Dong just posted a big-time personal best en route to silver. Entering this competition, Dong’s PB rested at the 59.61 put up last year. He now becomes China’s 4th-fastest man ever.
Qin now takes over the world rankings as the #1 performer in the world, with Dong’s time checking him in as the 4th-swiftest on the season.
Unfortunately for Sun, his season-best mark of 58.98 from the Spring Championships would have rendered him the silver medalist tonight.
2024-2025 LCM Men 100 Breast
Haiyang
58.61
| 2 | Sun Jiajun | CHN | 58.98 | 03/20 |
| 3 | Ludovico VIBERTI | ITA | 59.04 | 04/14 |
| 4 | Dong Zhihao | CHN | 59.06 | 05/18 |
| 5 | Nicolo MARTINENGHI | ITA | 59.16 | 04/14 |
The men’s 50m fly was void of any Singapore qualifiers as winner Chen Juner fell just shy of the 23.36 ‘A’ cut with a gold medal-worthy result of 23.41.
That won by a fingernail, with Sun Jiajun following up his 100m breast bronze with 50m fly silver in 23.46. There was a tie for bronze between Xu Fang and Shen Jiahao who touched simultaneously in 23.70.
Several semi-finals took place this evening, with national record holder Tang Qianting wasting no time making her presence known in the 100m breaststroke.
The 21-year-old Olympic multi-medalist from Paris ripped a speedy mark of 1:05.72 (30.51/35.21) to beat the pack by nearly 2 seconds en route to landing lane 4 for tomorrow night’s main event.
She owns the Chinese national record at the 1:04.39 registered in April of last year. In Paris, her result of 1:05.54 rendered her the silver medalist in the event.
Additional Notes
- World record holder and Olympic champion Pan Zhanle was back in the water, following up his 400m free victory from night one with a solid 1:47.22 semi-final swim in the men’s 200m free. Taking the top slot, however, was Zhang Zhanshuo who posted 1:46.83 as the sole swimmer under 1:47. Wang Shun captured the 2nd seed in 1:47.21 and Ji Xinjie followed Pan as the 4th-seeded swimmer in 1:47.28. The men will not only vie for an individual 200m free roster spot tomorrow but also for the privilege to represent China in the 4x20om free relay for Singapore.
- Olympic medalist Xu Jiayu coasted to the top seed in an uneventful men’s 100m back semi-final, hitting a pedestrian 54.12 as the man to beat.
- The women’s 100 back saw Wan Letian take the #1 seed in 59.35, while Peng Xuwei (59.58) and Qian Xinan (59.89) were close behind and ready to challenge.
World Championships Qualifiers Through Day 2
- Li Bingjie – women’s 400m free
- Yang Peiqi – women’s 400m free
- Pan Zhanle – men’s 400m free
- Fei Liwei – men’s 400m free
- Qin Haiyang – men’s 100m breast
- Dong Zhihao – men’s 100m breast
- Yu Yiting – women’s 100m fly, 200m IM
- Zhang Yufei – women’s 100m fly
- Yu Zidi – women’s 200m IM
Washed
Not 57 anymore
Men’s breaststroke is on life support this year, I thought it was just the Americans at first. But I wonder if Qin is gonna choke again like he did at the Olympics? Hope so 😁
State of Men’s 100 Breast is looking very sad rn, outside of Qin no one can reliably go sub-59. Peaty and Kamminga are not going to worlds, Fink hasn’t competed all year and it’s questionable if he’s even been training properly, and Martinenghi is barely scraping 59-lows. The battle for the medals seems to be wide open this year.
Don’t disturb this man’s sleep and watch him cook
i think Xu is tapering for China national games in november this year. I have never seen Xu swam a series of 54 for many years.