At this week’s Chinese Intercity Championships, which are a premier national event to identify budding star athletes ahead of the Olympic year, the girls have been the dominant forces in the action. True, the boys have had their shining moments as well, but it’s really been the girls who have taken the competition to task.
On today, the 3rd day of the meet, the boys started to ramp up and balance out the performances.
In the 200 free, the three medalists all finished under 1:50, led by a 1:46.14 from Wang Shun, which ties him with Fanila Izotov for the 7th-fastest time in the world this year (though it’s a huge time gap to move up from there). The runner-up was Li Yunqi in 1:47.02, which moves him into a tie for 13th in the world with Dominik Meichtry.
On their 800 free relay, China has a killer anchor in Sun Yang, and they rode him to a bronze medal at the World Championships. Both Wang and Li were a part of that relay, but neither was anywhere near as fast as they were in this race. If they had swum these times in Shanghai, then China would have easily picked-off France for the bronze. After this meet, the Chinese are starting to look like the only team (with Zhang Lin as their 4th) that has enough depth to even approach the Americans, who were dominant this year.
In the girls 100 back, where the Chinese women are loaded, a new star might be emerging in the form of Fu Yuanhui. She posted a 1:00.27 to win the girls 100 back, which is a career-best time for her, and in the process moved into the world’s top 20 in the event. Yuanhui could become a huge name in Chinese swimming, as she’s sort of a more “American style” swimmer. By this I mean that while she’s good at the backstrokes, she’s also a very good freestyler (which is versatility that you see more frequently in the United States than anywhere else).
In the boys 100 back, He Jianbin blew away his career-best time by almost a second to take the win in 54.32. The 6’1″ 18-year old has good size and a strong build to continue to improve, which will be big for this Chinese program that is severely lacking a backstroker. For reference, He’s time moved him into the world’s top 30, and left him only a tenth behind Sun Xiaolei for the country’s top backstroker this year (and 3-tenths away from the National Record).
And finally, in the girls 100 breaststroke, Fan Rong, fresh off of some big cash prizes at the Dubai World Cup, took the girls 100 breaststroke in 1:09.00, which is only about a tenth faster than she was at Chinese Nationals in April.
Boys 200 free
Wang Shun 1’46″14
Li Yunqi 1’47″02
Zhong Qiushi 1’49″58
Girls 100 back
Fu Yuanhui 1’00″27
Chen Jie 1’01″06
Cheng Haihua 1’01″09
Boys 100 back
He Jianbin 54″32
Zhang Fenglin 54’67
Xu Jiayu 55″48
Girls 100 breast
Fan Rong 1’09″00
He Yuzhe 1’09″24
Li QIng 1’09″59
