Shiwen Ye raised some eyebrows when start lists for the 2013 Chinese National Championships came out and she was inscribed in more than just her primary 200 and 400 IM’s. Still, she thus far is excelling in these other events, coming from a low seed to win the 200 free in 1:57.54.
With Yi Ting having given up on this 200 free, it’s up to Ye to lead the Chinese 800 free relay as the World Record holders try and get back onthe podium this summer. She’ll likely be joined on that relay by Shen Duo (1:58.37) and Qiu Yuhan (1:58.50).
Despite this being Ye’s second swim of the meet (it was short of her personal best in this race), she was taking the results with a grain of salt. She told local Chinese media after the race that her coaches told her she was “a little fat,” so her goal for this meet was to trim down headed into Worlds.
In the men’s 200 fly, China’s Chen Yin zoomed into the World lead in 1:56.02, followed by Wang Shun in 1:56.70. The Chinese men have never earned an Olympic medal in this race, though Wu Peng has given them three Worlds medals in the last four long course events. He wasn’t in the top three of this race.
Sun Yang took the non-Olympic 800 free in 7:45.60. That’s the second-best time in the World this year by several time zones (Canada’s Ryan Cochrane at Canada’s National Championship meet on Wednesday was a 7:43.)
Among the most notable semi-finals were a pair of 2:07’s in the women’s 200 butterfly from two of the best in history: Jiao Liuyang and Liu Zige.
Everybody Wang Shun tonight! More cowbell!