Yu Yiting, Zhang Yufei Among Chinese Championship winners night 2

by Arthur · October 28, 2022

2022 CHINESE SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS

Thursday 27 October – Saturday 29 October
Beijing, China
FINA SC World Championships qualifying event
SCM (25m)
Results via Asian media

Together with Li Bingjie‘s Asian record in the women’s 1500m freestyle and Chinese record in the 200m freestyle, there were several other notable swims to come out of day two of the 2022 Chinese Swimming Championships.

24 years old Zhang Yufei led the charge in the women’s 50-meter butterfly, posting a winning effort of 25.22. That led to a duo of two other swimmers coming under the threshold in 26 seconds. Wang Yichun clocked 25.46 for silver mens Yu Yiting rounded out the top three in 25.56.

Zhang took things up a notch in the women’s 50m freestyle, setting a new Chinese national record. She reached the wall in a time of 23.82, surpassing the previous national record of 23.05 Zhu Menghui put on the books at the 2018 FINA World Championships.

A time of 24.41 from 2018 represented Zhang’s previous personal best at this meet, so the Olympian knocked over half a second to check in with the historic new result. Her time would have been 6th at the 2021 FINA Short Track World Championships.

Zhang was a breakout star for China at the 2020 Olympic Games, topping the women’s 200m butterfly podium and earning silver in the 100m butterfly. She also took two relay medals in the form of 800m free relay gold and mixed relay silver.

For her part, Yu pulled double duty on the night, with the 17-year-old upgrading her 50m fly bronze to gold in the women’s 400m IM.

Reaching the wall in a time of 4:29.72, Yu became only the 6th Chinese woman to come under the 4:30 threshold in the short track version of the event.

Entering this event, Yu’s personal best rested on the 4:33.29 she produced at the 2021 FINA Short Track World Championships. That placed her in 9th place, just one spot away from the final.

As such tonight she hacked well over 2 seconds off her PB on her way to becoming China’s 5th fastest athlete in history.

More winners

Pan Zhanle earned a time of 46.27 to take the men’s 100-meter freestyle. It went beyond Han Junyi and Wang Haoyu who took silver and bronze in 46.77 and 46.78 respectively. As for Pan, he remains China’s 2nd fastest all-time in this tournament, but his effort tonight was about half a second off his previous best of 46.92 from Abu Dhabi.
In a Wang Shun-less 200m IM for men, it was Qin Haiyang who got it done for gold. Qin posted a time of 1:54.51 to easily clear the field, winning by over a second en route to the top of the podium. In doing so, he rocketed up the all-time Chinese artist chart to #2.
Qin also did damage in the men’s 50m breaststroke, earning a new national record with 26.16.
Women’s 100m backstroke Peng Xuwei get to the wall first, albeit by a super close margin. Peng hit a mark of 57.01 mens Wang Letian was right behind at 57.05. Both women came out on top with their swims tonight.
Wang Gukailai was the evening’s 50m backstroke gold for the men.
Fei Lewei took men’s 1500m gold in 14:35.50.