Qin Haiyang Unleashes 26.20 50 Breaststroke for New Asian Record

2023 WORLD AQUATICS CHAMPIONSHIPS

Tonight Qin Haiyang of China continued his tear across the sprint breaststroke events at the World Championships, capturing the top seed in the fast and furious 50m.

24-year-old Qin stopped the clock in a massive result of 26.20, holding over a half-second advantage ahead of the rest of the field. That is a huge time gap in a 50m race, especially at a World Championships.

Qin’s semi-final outing sliced .14 off the 26.34 time he produced this morning to render himself the top-seeded swimmer for tonight’s battle.

Entering this competition, Qin’s lifetime best checked in at the 26.61 logged last May at the Chinese Spring Championships. That sat as both the Chinese national record and Asian continental record, so the ace knocked both of those down with his massive performance.

Qin already became the #2 performer all-time in the 100m breaststroke with his gold medal-garnering swim of 57.69 earlier in this competition. He matches that same ranking in this 50m breast, overtaking Belarus’ Ilya Shymanovich.

Top 5 Men’s LCM 50 Breaststroke Performers All-Time

  1. Adam Peaty (GBR) 25.95, 2017
  2. Qin Haiyang (CHN) 26.20, 2023
  3. Ilya Shymanovich (BLR) 26.28, 2023
  4. Felipe Lima (BRA) 26.33, 2019/ Nicolo Martinenghi (ITA) 26.33, 2022
  5. Joao Gomes Jr (BRA) 26.42, 2019

MEN’S 50 BREASTSTROKE – SEMIFINAL

  • World Record: Adam Peaty, Great Britain – 25.95 (2017)
  • World Junior Record: Nicolo Martinenghi, Italy – 26.97 (2017)
  • Championship Record: Adam Peaty, Great Britain – 25.95 (2017)
  • 2022 World Champion: Nic Fink, United States – 26.45
  • 2022 Time to Final: 27.20

Finals Qualifiers:

  1. Qin Haiyang (CHN) — 26.20
  2. Nicolo Martinenghi (ITA) — 26.74
  3. Sun Jiajun (CHN) — 26.78
  4. Lucas Matzerath (GER) — 26.89
  5. Joao Gomes Hr (BRA) – -26.90
  6. Nic Fink (USA) — 26.95
  7. Peter Stevens (SLO) — 27.04
  8. Sam Williamson (AUS) — 27.06

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zyprock
11 months ago

In Mandarin, Hai means ‘Sea’ and Yang means ‘Ocean’. This guy is destined to be a swimming legend.

Carlo
11 months ago

2nd

EMC
11 months ago

Adam Peaty has been faster six times, but he’s only broken 26 seconds twice.

1) 25.95 (2017)
2) 25.99 (2017)
3) 26.06 (2019)
4) 26.09 (2018)
5) 26.10 (2017)
6) 26.11 (2019)

Tracy Kosinski
11 months ago

Love this guy. Love how he said he’ll get to the 100 WR. Now we’ll just wait for it LOL.

Swimsam reader!
11 months ago

I feel for the other sprint breastrokers ou there, thinking the door to gold is open for them with Peaty not racing here and perhaps even in Paris – only for Qin to emerge on the scene, destroy everyone by a second in the 100m and at least half a second in the 50m.

Once again the sprint breastroke world apart from one man is ‘only racing for silver with literallyno chance of even competing with Qin! Must be very disheartening

Scotty P
Reply to  Swimsam reader!
11 months ago

Kid is a unit. 100% has to be pushing some heavy weight in the gym.

Sara C
Reply to  Scotty P
11 months ago

You are right. His training team is quite active on Chineses social media and keeps posting their training videos pretty much everyday. Basically people witnessed how their body improved over the past two years. Last time they posted Qin doing 10 rep 40kg pull up.

Swim Addict
11 months ago

This is now cartoonish levels of improvement from Qin. Hadent been sub 27 before this year. Goes 26.6 in May, 26.3 in heats and 26.2 in semis with more than half a chance of beating Peaty’s WR in the final which many believe is one of the most difficult in men’s swimming. It’s a remarkable improvement over a 50m (and the dude is 24 years old)!

Cannot wait to see what he does in the 200m.

Ragnar
Reply to  Swim Addict
11 months ago

Dude discovered the gym this year

Christopher DeBari
Reply to  Swim Addict
11 months ago

Test him. If he is clean then my hat will go off to him. Until then, he’s suspect.

About Retta Race

Retta Race

Former Masters swimmer and coach Loretta (Retta) thrives on a non-stop but productive schedule. Nowadays, that includes having just earned her MBA while working full-time in IT while owning French 75 Boutique while also providing swimming insight for BBC.

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