Zhang Yufei Adds Another Event to Her Olympic Program as Chinese Nationals Wrap Up
The final day of the Chinese National Championships, which also served as an Olympic Games qualification meet, wrapped up on Saturday. The highlight of the session was a three-woman duel in the 50-meter freestyle, where Wu Qingfeng emerged victorious.
Wu covered her one lap in 24.22, which was slightly quicker than the 24.30 of Zhang Yufei. Yang Junxuan was third in 24.55. Zhang will have a busy Olympics in Paris, as she will be among the gold-medal contenders in the 100 butterfly and 200 butterfly and see considerable relay duty. As for Yang, she’ll chase hardware in the 100 freestyle and 200 freestyle.
In the only men’s final of the last session, Fei Liwei secured a berth to the Olympics when he won the 1500 freestyle in 14:49.30, which was well ahead of the 15:04.00 produced by Zhang Zhanshuo for second place.
The competition got underway last weekend amid major controversy, when multiple news outlets reported that 23 Chinese swimmers had tested positive for a banned substance ahead of the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2021. However, due to contamination cited by CHIDADA and confirmed by WADA, the athletes were cleared of wrongdoing and allowed to compete.