The second day of the Chinese national championships featured a new national record from Li Zhuhao in the men’s 50 fly, while Olympic champions Sun Yang and Ye Shiwen each put together notable performances.
Li won the 50 fly in 23.36, knocking one hundredth off Yu Hexin’s national record of 23.37 from 2015. Li also moved to third in the world this year with that effort. Shi Yang (23.67) and Zhou Jiawei (23.91) completed the top three.
Zhang Yufei edged out Lu Ying to win the women’s 100 fly, 57.63 to 57.98. Those times rank fifth and eighth in the world this year, respectively. Zhou Yilin took third in 58.34.
Ye Shiwen, the 2012 Olympic gold medalist and 2011 World Champion in the 200 IM, will be headed back to the World Champs in Barcelona this summer after winning that event in 2:11.66, making her way into the world top ten. Second went to Zhang Sishi (2:12.82), just ahead of Zhang Jiaqi (2:12.87).
Yan Zibei, just a day after becoming the first Chinese man to break 59 in the 100 breast, won that event in 59.28. His semifinals time of 58.92 ranks second in the world this year. Li Xiang took second in 59.84, and Wang Lizhao finished third in 59.98.
As for Sun, he posted his second No. 1-ranked time in as many days with a 1:46.11 in the men’s 200 free. After already reaching the 3:42-range in the 400-meter event, Sun moved ahead of Gabriele Detti at the top of the world rankings. Wang Shun (1:47.24) and Ji Xinjie (1:48.61) will bracket Sun in the final.
Neither of China’s Olympic medalists in the 100 back, Xu Jiayu and Fu Yuanhui, were the top seeds into finals of their events. Xu qualified second for the men’s 100 back in 54.32, trailing Li Guangyuan (53.79), and Fu’s tme of 1:00.37 was good for the third seed behind Chen Jie (1:00.11) and Wang Xueer (1:00.15).
Yu Jingyao (1:08.23) and Zhang Xinyu (1:08.45) led the way into the women’s 100 breast final, with Olympic finalist Shi Jinglin third in 1:08.53.
So Ye Shewin is headed back to the World Championships in “Barcelona.”
And here I I had made my reservations for Budapest.
Silly me!
Determined