Qin Haiyang & Zhang Yufei Notch Victories To Open Chinese World Trials

by Retta Race 12

December 10th, 2023 Asia, International, News

2023 CHINESE WORLD TRIALS

  • Sunday, December 10th – Friday, December 15th
  • Jinan, China
  • LCM (50m)
  • Results via Asian media

The 2023 Chinese World Championships Trials began today from Jinan and several of the nation’s red-hot stars were in the water to take on their domestic competition.

Right off the bat, World Record holder Qin Haiyang dove in for the men’s 100m breaststroke and handily claimed the gold.

24-year-old Qin touched in a time of 58.40 to beat the field by well over a second, with Sun Jiajun snagging silver in 59.71 while Dong Zhihao bagged bronze in 59.73.

Qin continues the most successful year of his career, one which saw him sweep the breaststroke events at the World Championships. There in Fukuoka, he produced a mark of 57.69 for a new Asian Record. He followed that up with a similarly impressive result of 57.76 meet record for gold at the Asian Games in Hangzhou.

Another Asian Games gold medalist who was in the pool this evening was 21-year-old Li Bingjie.

The freestyle ace contested the women’s 400m distance, producing a gold medal-worthy time of 4:03.39. Although that was off the 4:01.96 which resulted in her title in Hangzhou, her outing here was enough to earn her first medal of these Trials.

Olympic multi-champion Zhang Yufei made her presence known this evening as well en route to claiming the top prize in the women’s 100m fly.

25-year-old Zhang turned in a time of 56.85 to produce the sole sub-57-second result of the field. She touched nearly a second ahead of Yu Yiting who clocked 57.69 for runner-up status while Wang Yichun also landed on the podium in 58.54.

Yu was back in the water later in the session to take on the women’s 200m IM. She upgraded to gold in that event, producing a result of 2:10.69 as the winner.

Additional winners included Wang Changhao taking the men’s 50m fly in 23.40 and Zhang Zhanshuo topping the men’s 400m free podium in 3:45.11.

Wang was born in 2007 so that’s a stellar new lifetime best for the 16-year-old budding star. The teen now ranks 4th in the world on the season. His time also is approaching the newly-minted World Junior Record of 3:44.31 Bulgaria’s Petar Mitsin put on the books this past summer.

2023-2024 LCM Men 400 Free

2Elijah
WINNINGTON
AUS3:41.4104/17
3Samuel
SHORT
AUS3:41.6404/17
4 Woomin
KIM
KOR3:42.4206/01
5Guilherme
COSTA
BRA3:42.7607/27
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Troyy
11 months ago

Qin’s really gonna go back to back triple gold.

chip
11 months ago

Zhang Zhanshuo swam 3:45.11 in the 400 FR making him the second fastest 16-year-old of all time after Thorpe. Looking forward to see what he can do in the 400 IM, where he is already the fastest 16-year-old of all time. Yu Zidi just turned 11 and is the fastest 12U girl of all time in the 400 FR with 4:15.39. She is also the fastest 11U of all time regardless of gender.

Summer Love
Reply to  chip
11 months ago

If he swim in Paris or the next Worlds and win a medal, no doubt there will be people who are shocked and throw a shade

“where did this kid come from????!!!”

boi
Reply to  chip
10 months ago

nah 415 for a barely 11 year old girl is wild

Jonathan
11 months ago

If China is the only big country taking Doha 2024 seriously, how many of the relays could they win?

It’s looking like USA won’t compete in any of the women’s relays, but I’m hoping USA will field a competitive lineup (based on their roster) in all the men’s and mixed relays.

Tencor
Reply to  Jonathan
11 months ago

They were already favorites in the Men’s medley and Mixed medley and that will obviously not change.

The Men’s 4×100 free is very interesting, we know the USA will probably be out of it with the announced squad and China can plausibly contest for it if Italy doesn’t send their best. Women’s 4×200 is another possibility but even without Titmus it is very hard for Australia to lose. Women’s 4×100 free is out of reach for any nation not named Australia even if the Aussies don’t go all in for Doha. Women’s medley is interesting but it depends on the Aussie squad.

China has historically punted the mixed free relay but maybe they’ll try to get silver behind the Aussies.

Jonathan
11 months ago

I wish USA Swimming was hosting a trials meet and sending a team full team to Doha. I don’t begrudge individual swimmers opting not to participate, but I do have a problem with USA Swimming cheaping out and not sending a full team. This would be a great opportunity for some new swimmers to get the experience of swimming at a world championships.

I mean, USA Swimming could’ve used the US Open as the de-facto trials meet for Doha 2024.

Tencor
11 months ago

China seems to be one of the only major swimming nations to be sending a fullish-strength team to Doha. US, Australia, Canada, GB all have missing pieces

Jess
Reply to  Tencor
11 months ago

The Aus and GB teams haven’t been announced?

Emily Se-Bom Lee
Reply to  Jess
11 months ago

titmus, mckeown and guy have all said that they arent going

Dee
Reply to  Emily Se-Bom Lee
11 months ago

Bath NC are also due to be in Australia in Jan/Feb, so barring some logistical masterplan/luck, they (Dean, Whittle, Anderson etc) will all be unable to attend worlds too. That might explain why Scott is going – Gotta qualify that 4×1.

Summer Love
Reply to  Dee
11 months ago

Hopefully GB doesn’t DSQ.

*Knock on wood*

About Retta Race

Former Masters swimmer and coach Loretta (Retta) thrives on a non-stop but productive schedule. Nowadays, that includes having 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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