2021 CHINA NATIONAL GAMES
- Sunday, September 19th – Saturday, September 25th (swimming)
- Xi’an Olympic Sports Center Swimming and Diving Hall, Shaanxi, China
- LCM (50m)
- SwimSwam Preview
- Entries/Results
The swimming portion of the 14th edition of the China National Games kicked off today in Shaanxi with several Olympians diving into the Xi’an Olympic Sports Center pool.
All told, approximately 20,000 athletes from across 35 sports are expected to descend upon the host city for the prestigious quadrennial multi-sport event, with the competition marking the first sporting event to be held in the nation with spectators since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
In the water today, Yu Yiting snagged the women’s 400m IM IM victory over Ge Chutong, with both women representing the only sub-4:40 swimmers of the event. Yu touched in a time of 4:38.39 to get her meet underway, while Ge was just over a second behind in 4:39.77. Rounding out the top 3 was Zhu Leiju in 4:44.55.
Yu raced this 400m IM in Tokyo this summer, settling for 11th place out of the heats in a slower time of 4:41.64.
Wang Shun, a flag bearer here at these Games, made some noise in the men’s 400m IM, taking the meet title in a mark of 4:12.76. Wang topped the men’s 200m IM podium at this summer’s Olympic Games, an event in which he’ll be racing here as well.
In semi-final action, Yan Zibei posted a mark of 58.87 to dominate the round. That’s already faster than the 58.99 he put up in that Tokyo final to tie American Andrew Wilson for 6th place.
Yan owns the Chinese and Asian records in this 1breast event in 58.63, so the man is already within striking distance with the final yet to come.
Zhang Yufei was another winner on opening night here, producing a solid effort of 57.64 to take the women’s 100m fly. In Tokyo, Zhang finished runner-up behind gold medalist Maggie MacNeil of Canada, with Zhang hitting 55.64 to MacNeil’s 55.59.
