A few days ago, Chinese announced their team for Rome this summer:
男：21人
何建彬、程飞轶、吴鹏、张琳、孙杨、张国英、王帅、周嘉威、石峰、薛佳佳、陈寅、陈祚、蔡力、吕志武、史腾飞、刘维佳、孙晗、辛桐、张宇、班豹、汪一鸣；
女：25人
郭君君、哈斯楠、朱颖文、任珺妮、焦刘洋、徐妍玮、刘京、李佳星、庞佳颖、杨雨、高畅、赵菁、陈慧佳、王然迪、朱倩蔚、唐奕、孙晔、刘子歌、李哲思、周雅菲、于尧、洪文文、徐田龙子、白安琪、郑蓉蓉
It is not the best team for China but based on the NG strategy, it is considerably strong team. We also see some substitute swimmer for women side for all disciplines. The biggest names absent in the team include Qi Hui and Li Xuanxu from the women side. Qi did really well in April when she set pbs in 100m breast (1:06.69) and 200m IM (2:11.10) which ranked the highest among the Chinese this year. Especially for 1:06.69 in 100m breaststroke (not the mark 1:06.85 put in swimnews.com) which is her 1st sub-1:07 and was just 0.05s away from AR set by Luo Xuejuan back 2004 Olympics. She also won her pet event, 200m breaststroke in 2:24 in the Chinese Nationals. However, the new head coach, Mo Zhenjie, indicated his loss of confidence in Qi who has not performed well in the last few major meets including 2007 WC and 2008 Olympics. As a former WR holder (2:22.99) back in 2001, she never managed to win any long course world title (beween 2001 and 2007) or Olympic medal (2000, 2004 and 2008) which were taken into account. Her best results in WC is silver in 2001, bronze in 2003; and in Olympics is 4th in 2000 Olympics and 5th or 6th in 2004.
Li Xuanxu, rising like a rocket in the last 2 years, is just 15 years old. She has already established herself as a 800m NR holder (8:24) and finalists in 2 Olympic events (400m IM and 800m free). However, she was not selected to the team. No reason is given regarding her absence but I don't think it is due to injuries since she was competiting in the NG qualifier/national junior championships last week and she won the 200m IM in 2:14 which was considered not too bad since this is not her strongest event. One thing is kind of weird is that currently she is not competiting under any province or unit which is prerequisite for chinese athletes competiting domestically. No matter it is provincial team or army team, you need to choose one to compete. According to the past reports, her coach, Feng Zhen, used to coached in Liaoning province and then in Hunan Province where she selected Li. Somehow, they were then training in Guangdong province and competiting 2007 city games under Guangzhou city. And now, she is under "unattached" tag. Hopefully, she will not be another "Chen Yan" who suffered from stomach illness in most of her career and only allowed her hitting big in national games and 1 edition of WC.
Back to the list:
On men's side:
何建彬, He Jianbin (Guangdong)
100m back: 55.69 (2009), 57.03 (2008)
New comer
程飞轶, Cheng Feiyi (Liaoning)
100m back: 54.99 (2009), 56.88 (2008)
New comer
Since Ouyang Kunpeng's doping ban, China suddenly lost their no. 1 backstroke swimmer which makes this discipline even weaker in China. No other Chinese men other than Ouyang swum faster than 55.0 until Cheng who just barely dipped below 55.0 mark. This shows how weak in general the men's backstroke is in China. Unlike their neigbour, Japan, who now consistently have swimmers doing sub 55 and even sub 54. The prospect of these swimmers in WC was not optimistic.
吴鹏, Wu Peng
200m butterfly: 1:54.35 (2008)
He has been one of the iconic swimmers for breakthrough in Chinese men. Emerged in 2001 NG as a 14 year-old to win 200m fly in NR (1:58.89) and then won 3 golds (including defeat ing Yamamoto in 200m fly, AR in 400m IM and surprise win in 200m back) in 2002 Asian Games. Semifinalist in 2003 WC and finalist (6th) in 2004 Athens Olympics. The first male swimmer to win medal in 2 editions of WC (bronze in 2005 and silver in 2007). He tied 4th in Olympics. Unfortunately, he broke his arm this year and is still unable to get back to full training. It will be tough for him to do well in WC this summer.
张琳, Zhang Lin
200m free: 1:45.83 (2009), 1:47.63 (2008)
400m free: 3:42.63 (2009), 3:42.44 (2008)
1500m free: 14:47.51 (2009), 14:45.84 (2008)
Another icon of male improvement in Chinese swimming who won the history Olympic swimming medal on men side. He re-writes the history of major weakness in middle distance free when he is the 1st to be Chinese WC finalist in 200m to 500m free. Since then, there are more and more promising middle distance free swimmers like Sun Yang, Zhang Enjian, Zu Lijun and Ren Chen coming to the scene and performing well. After losing to Park Tae Hwan badly in 2006 and 2007 WC, Zhang was trained under Dennis (Grant Hacket's former coach) in Australia and improved greatly since. He finally rose up to the occasion and won the 400m free silver in 2008 Olympics. His times this year have already showed sign he can do even better in WC. Don't underestimate Park who has been very low-key this year.
孙杨, Sun Yang (Zhejiang)
200m free: 1:48.35 (2009), 1:49.07 (2008)
400m free: 3:49.18 (2009), 3:47.33 (2008)
1500m free: 14:51.94 (2009), 14:48.39 (2008)
Another great long distance free talent after his compatriot Yu Cheng from Zhejiang province. He has shown his ability at the age of 17 when he swam into the Olympic final of 1500m free. Standing at more than 1.9m, he is the one to watch in 2012 and 2016. He also broke 4:20 in 400m IM (4:19.87) this year.
张国英, Zhang Guoying (Guangdong)
100m breaststrok: 1:01.15 (2009), 1:03.56 (2008)
王帅, Wang Shuai (Beijing)
100m breaststroke: 1:01.98 (2009), 1:03.72 (2008)
Both newcomers. Unheard of before 2009, Zhang pushed NR to 1:01 low from Xie Zhi's 1:01.63 last year. Zhang is another other fine breastroke swimmer Guangdong province has been fostering after Zeng, 100m breaststroke finalist in 1996 Olympics and silver medalist in 1998 WC. However, 10 years later, such improvement in NR seems insigificant compared to the rest of the world when more than 10 swimmers around the globe are able to swim sub 1:00. This time, Navy's Qu Jingyu was not selected although he came in 2nd in chinese Nationals with 1:01.16, just 0.01 behind Zhang.
周嘉威, Zhou Jiawei (Guangdong)
50m fly: 23.43 (2009)
100m fly: 52.44 (2009), 51.36s (2008)
He is the 1st Chinese man to swim below 53.0 (52.7 in 2005). Zhou has been around the top in domestic scene for more than 8-9 years but didn't compete much in major meet especially he was dropped from the 2008 Olympics team with no reasons given. About a month after the Olympics last year, he did 51.36 in 100m fly which ranked him 10th in the world. This year, he set the AR in 50m fly which ranked him no. 10 or 11 in the world all time list. However, he pulled out from the 100m fly final in Nationals due to injuries and this angered the head coach who said he will never be selected to the team. I understand his sentiments since Zhou hasn't contributed much for the national team. The only biggest success I can remember is gold in 50m fly in 2006 Asian Games. Nevertheless, his name appears in the list. Hopefully, he does appear in the Worlds. Zhou, himself, told the reporters after setting AR in 50m fly that he wants to do well in Worlds and at least once beat Michael Phelps before he retires. What a statement he made. and let's see.
石峰, Shi Feng (Liaoning)
100m fly: 51.68 (2008), 51.86 (2009)
More well-known to be fly swimmer compared to back swimmer, he has been a consistent performer since 2005 from 53 low to last year 51.68s in Olympics. Coached by Jin Wei, same coach as 2008 Olympic gold medalist in women's fly, Liu Zige, did another 51.86 this year. Last year, he almost made it to the Olympic final when he ranked 9 or 10th in the semi. Only 21, he is one to watch.
薛佳佳, Xue Jiajia (Beijing)
50m breaststroke: 27.94 (2009)
Unheard of before 2009. He finished behind Qu Jingyu (setting NR at 27.74) in 2009 Nationals.
陈寅, Chen Yin (HeBei)
200m fly: 1:56.84 (2009), 1:55.6 (2008)
A very consistent swimmer. Another top swimmer from Hebei province since Qian Hong, women's 100m fly Olympic champion in 1992. He was the finalist in 2007 Worlds. However, he has been overshadowded by Wu Peng in the recent years and he also said once during Nationals this year that he couldn't pace well in the race when Wu was not swimming in front of him. He also made a breakthrough in 100m fly that he dipped below 53s for the 1st time this year (52.99).
陈祚, Chen Zuo (Beijing)
100m free: 48.73 (2009), 49.06(2006), 49.08 (2008)
A leader-like swimmer in the team whose event is hard for him to succeed at the world level. His persistance really pays off. In the late 1990s, he is more a long distance free swimmer and he turned to 100m free swimmer in 2000, 2001. In 2001, he won NG title at only 50.92. At that time, any time below 51s was considered very good in China since the NR had stood at 50.51 since 1989. He and his teammates (including Huang Shaohua) improved a little by little over the years. In 2005, he broke 50s for the 1st time (49.56s) and set former AR at 49.06 in 2006. His 49.06 made him the 1st Chinese male to make world top 25 in the last 15 years. This year, he is 27 years old and he is at 48.73 (AR). He is one of the iconic swimmers who magnifests the evolution of this event in China. With all the suits and fierce competition in this event, it is still difficult for him to make impact in the world level unless he can hit a 47.
蔡力, Cai Li (Zhejiang)
50m free: 22.86 (2005), 22.50 (2008), 22.19 (2009)
100m free: 50.12 (2008), 49.15 (2009)
吕志武, Lu Zhiwu (Zhejiang)
50m free: 22.44 (2008), 22.24 (2009)
100m free: 50.08 (2007), 49.32 (2009)
史腾飞, Shi Tengfei (Beijing)
100m free: 49.25 (2008), 49.47 (2009)
Duo from Zhejiang alongside Beijing newcomer represent the new generation of Chinese male sprint free. Cai Li (22yo) has been the top 50m free swimmer since 2005 and took down the NR this year at 22.19s. Lu Zhiwu (20yo), also did well in 50m free when he swam 22.44 last year and did 22.24 this year (also below old NR). They both set pbs in 100m with 49.15 and 49.32, respectively this year. Shi did a fast 49.25s last year and settled at 49.47 this year. With all 4 sub-50s swimmers, there will be a chance to make to the relay final. Actually, the recent trend is quite promising for men's 100m free as for the last 2 years (2008-2009), there have been at least 8 sub-50s swimmers in China compared to none before 2005. Recently, Shi Runqiang also posted a fast 48.89s, the 2nd sub-49s performer in China.
刘维佳, Liu Weijia, Liaoning
400m IM: 4:20.05 (2003), 4:17.86 (2007), 4:18.41 (2008), 4:15.16 (2009)
Another top IM swimmer from Liaoning after Chen Yan, former women 400m IM WR holder and world champion. Liu was Olympian back in 2004 as a 15yo but did not make the team in 2008 although he was the only man who beat the A-qualifying mark. He was also once the NR holder in 200m breaststroke in 2005. However, he has not achieved much in the international swimming. From 2009, Liu has shown a great form. He did a Asian record (4:04.53) in 400m IM short course in Japan Open to defeat all the great IM swimmers from the host. Then, he also pulled another NR in long course (4:15.16) in April to erase Wu Peng's 7 year-old NR. To make to the Worlds final, he may need to go down to 4:12 or 4:11 which I don't think it is easy for him to slice another a few seconds off.
孙晗, Sun Han, Beijing
200m IM: 2:03.69 (2008)
辛桐, Xin Tong, Beijing
200m free: 1:50.37 (2008)
400m free: 3:52.20 (2008)
张宇, Zhang Yu, Beijing
200m back: 2:02/03
No idea why they were selected and obviously, they are not top 3 or 5 in China. The only similarity is that they are all from Beijing.
班豹, Ban Bao, Liaoning
汪一鸣, Wang Yiming, Anhui
200m fly
4th in recent Nationals. Coached by Olympic silver medalist, Jiao Liuyang's coach, Liu Haitao
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Friday, June 26, 2009
Zhang Lin had a good meet in Queensland winter SC
A group of swimmers including Olympic silver medalist, Zhang Lin, Xin Tong, Zhang Yu and Ren Chen were competiting in Queensland winter SC meet on Jun 20-21. Zhang won his pet events 200 (1:45.40) and 400m free (3:44. 77) in which were followed by his teammate Ren Chen (1:47.08 and 3:48.09), from Hebei province, if I am not wrong. Ren is the finalist of 1500m free in Word SC championships in 2006. Zhang Yu, backstroke specialist, has not shown the convincible form to compete in WC when he finished second in 200m back with 1:58.90. Xin Tong, shadowed by Zhang in Beijing team finished 1:49.46 in 200m free.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
After 2 years, all the old men's Chinese male national records were fallen in 2009
2 of the ancient (not so for some countries) national records in Chinese male swimming fell in the last 2 years:
100m breaststroke: One of the events have not been improved for more than 10 years. The old record was held by Guangdong's Zeng Qiliang at 1:01.66 set in 1997 Chinese national games. Zeng is also the first of few male Chinese to make to the final of Olympics (1996 at 1:02.01) and the 1st medalist in world championships (1998 in Perth, silver with a time of 1:01.76). He was still in sub 1:02 form before 2000. One of the greatest Chinese male swimmer in 1990s. Since 2000, no more sub 1:02 performance was swum until 2006 Asian championships in Singapore when Xie Zhi from Yunnan province did 1:01.9 and he managed to beat Zeng's record at1:01.63 last year. This year saw a breakthrough in national championships in April when top 3 finished sub 1:02 with Zhang Zhiying from Guandong Province swam 1:01.15 in the final and Qu Jingyu's 1:01.16 in semi. Qu is the former 200m IM NR holder at 2:00.59 in 2005. Ma Xiang from Tianjin also swam a swift 1:01.43 in Chinese Junior Championships in Tianjin this week. The world stadard has been raised too far up that even with all these improvement appear insignificant. Anyway, a small step at a time. Just get over 1:01 barrier 1st before thinking about 59s. Zhang has been selected to the WC team but I think provincial coaches won't shapen him to the top form for the WC due to NG coming up 2 months later.
50m free
A long-awaited NR (22.33) held by Jiang Chengji was finally conquered by three guys who has been all active in the domestic swimming for the last few years. Cai Li, Liu Runliang and Lu Zhiwu all took the record down in the same meet with 22.19 (final), 22.23 (semi) and 22.24 (semi). The toll has not been stopped when Liu just broke the record and also AR (22.18) this week with 22.13s which has not been known in most of the English media after I google searched. Liu was not selected to the WC team but Lu and Cai who are more experienced.
Anyway, good to see both records set before Y2K were broken.
On women side, the records before Y2k have not been broken are:
1. 50m free Le Jingyi 24.51, 1994
2. 400m free Chen Yan 4:05.00, 1997
3. 200m back He Cihong 2:07.40, 1994
4. 200m IM Wu Yanyan 2:09.72, 1997
5. 400m IM Chen Yan 4:34.79, 1997
The potential breakers for these events are
1. 50m free: (1) Zhu Yingwen who is 28 this year (which may be the last year of her career) still has excellent form. She was down the Le's 100m free last year to become the 1st sub-54s Asian woman but there is still one more mission to go. Actually, she was really close in 2005 at 24.58, just 0.07s away. Hopefully, she can do it before she hangs up her swim gear, (2) Li Zheshi still 14, 15 this year and she did 24.90 last year in Olympics and 24.94 this year. China also has their own Cate Campbell who can swim so fast at such young age in sprint free. For such swimmer, there are still a lot of variables for her to live up her potential. (3) Jiao Liuyang, not sure about her since this is not her main event but she dipped 24.98 this year. She has shown so much talent in butterfly and has already been on the right track so far. From 2005 to 2008 when she leaped from NG runnerup to Olympics runnerup in three years, who can underestimate her future in other events if she and her coach (Liu Haitao) are committed to.
2. 400m free: There are strings of names who may be able to achieve this feat but since they are still very young and most of them lack of major competition exposure, it is still a question mark for them. (1) Li Xuanxu: She has been the NR holder of 800m free and she did 4:07 last year and 4:06.8 this year. She is the steadiest among the other contender. However, she is only 15 this year and she has done tons of big meets (domestic and international). How she and her coach cope with such pressure and her physical side and also recovery will be tough to handle since she deals with all the long distance events including 400 and 800m free and also 400m IM. Hope she goes well. (2) Chen Qian: Not well known but she already did 4:06.09 this year but consistency has been demonstrated yet. (3) You Meihong: Li's teammate who did 4:07.8 in 2006 but did not improve since. She also did 8:31 in 800m so she is one to watch if she gets back on track. (4) Ren Junni, another 4:07.9 performaner this year. Little known for her. I also bet some of the more experienced swimmers in Zhejiang like Zheng Jing and Tang Jingzhi. There might be some surprising winner from Shanghai who do particularly well recently.
3. 200m back: (1) The top choice is definitely Zhao Jing who is already less than 0.5s from her senior's record. Zhao's target is definitely not just the NR but the AR set by Reiko Nakamura last summar. Luckily, Nakamura's record is also not far off Zhao's pb unlike Conventry's WR (2:05) which is still quite unreachable for her. This season also saw 3 sub 2:10 marks in the same meet when Zhou Yanxin and Bai Anqi who both made a breakthrough this year. Zhou who trained in Australia last year with her fellow backstroker, chen Wen, already showed sign of her rising last year when she did 2:11 in a couple of occasions. Bai Anqi, another up and coming swimmer finished 4th in AG in 2006 and has been wandering 2:11 and 2:12 for a few years. Both are (2) and (3) spots. (4) Liao Yali: Obviously, she is more for the service of her province. She surprised everyone by beating veteran Zhao Shu in 2005 NG in 2:10.8. This year, she is at 2:11. Who knows she might make a big pb in NG. The veterans might also be surprises: (5) Chen Yanyan: Multiple representatives of major games like Olympics and WC. Actually she is not particularly fast but very consistent around 2:11 for many years. She finally broke 2:11 in 2007 and has shown remarkable speed improvement in 100m back when she did 1:00.21 this year which is more than 1s faster than her previous best. (6) Zhao Shu: 2000 and 2004 Olympian and unlucky double silver medalists in 2 editions of NG (2001 and 2005). She might try everything to make this come true.
4. 200m IM: (1) With Qi Hui's improvement, this NR (and also AR) might be broken. Qi set another pb this year at 2:11.10, 1.4s away from Wu's record. Her strong leg is breastroke and she is also a pretty good freestyle swimmer so the determinant will be back and fly which are oppositely the strongest events of Wu. (2) Li Jiaxing: She has been pretty consistent for last few years with 2:12 in Olympics with another 2:12 this year. She is also strong in backstroke. (3) Liu Jing: She has been 2:15 swimmer for many years (since 2004 or 2005) but finally made a breakthru this year with top performance in 200m free and 200m IM.
5. 400m IM: Hard to break at this point: The closest might be (1) Li Xuanxu who did 4:37 in 2007, 4:36 in 2008 and (2) Qi Hui who consistently swam 4:38-4:39 region. Actually, there are a lot of potential sub 4-40 swimmers in China and I do not forsee they are able to capture Chen's AR.
100m breaststroke: One of the events have not been improved for more than 10 years. The old record was held by Guangdong's Zeng Qiliang at 1:01.66 set in 1997 Chinese national games. Zeng is also the first of few male Chinese to make to the final of Olympics (1996 at 1:02.01) and the 1st medalist in world championships (1998 in Perth, silver with a time of 1:01.76). He was still in sub 1:02 form before 2000. One of the greatest Chinese male swimmer in 1990s. Since 2000, no more sub 1:02 performance was swum until 2006 Asian championships in Singapore when Xie Zhi from Yunnan province did 1:01.9 and he managed to beat Zeng's record at1:01.63 last year. This year saw a breakthrough in national championships in April when top 3 finished sub 1:02 with Zhang Zhiying from Guandong Province swam 1:01.15 in the final and Qu Jingyu's 1:01.16 in semi. Qu is the former 200m IM NR holder at 2:00.59 in 2005. Ma Xiang from Tianjin also swam a swift 1:01.43 in Chinese Junior Championships in Tianjin this week. The world stadard has been raised too far up that even with all these improvement appear insignificant. Anyway, a small step at a time. Just get over 1:01 barrier 1st before thinking about 59s. Zhang has been selected to the WC team but I think provincial coaches won't shapen him to the top form for the WC due to NG coming up 2 months later.
50m free
A long-awaited NR (22.33) held by Jiang Chengji was finally conquered by three guys who has been all active in the domestic swimming for the last few years. Cai Li, Liu Runliang and Lu Zhiwu all took the record down in the same meet with 22.19 (final), 22.23 (semi) and 22.24 (semi). The toll has not been stopped when Liu just broke the record and also AR (22.18) this week with 22.13s which has not been known in most of the English media after I google searched. Liu was not selected to the WC team but Lu and Cai who are more experienced.
Anyway, good to see both records set before Y2K were broken.
On women side, the records before Y2k have not been broken are:
1. 50m free Le Jingyi 24.51, 1994
2. 400m free Chen Yan 4:05.00, 1997
3. 200m back He Cihong 2:07.40, 1994
4. 200m IM Wu Yanyan 2:09.72, 1997
5. 400m IM Chen Yan 4:34.79, 1997
The potential breakers for these events are
1. 50m free: (1) Zhu Yingwen who is 28 this year (which may be the last year of her career) still has excellent form. She was down the Le's 100m free last year to become the 1st sub-54s Asian woman but there is still one more mission to go. Actually, she was really close in 2005 at 24.58, just 0.07s away. Hopefully, she can do it before she hangs up her swim gear, (2) Li Zheshi still 14, 15 this year and she did 24.90 last year in Olympics and 24.94 this year. China also has their own Cate Campbell who can swim so fast at such young age in sprint free. For such swimmer, there are still a lot of variables for her to live up her potential. (3) Jiao Liuyang, not sure about her since this is not her main event but she dipped 24.98 this year. She has shown so much talent in butterfly and has already been on the right track so far. From 2005 to 2008 when she leaped from NG runnerup to Olympics runnerup in three years, who can underestimate her future in other events if she and her coach (Liu Haitao) are committed to.
2. 400m free: There are strings of names who may be able to achieve this feat but since they are still very young and most of them lack of major competition exposure, it is still a question mark for them. (1) Li Xuanxu: She has been the NR holder of 800m free and she did 4:07 last year and 4:06.8 this year. She is the steadiest among the other contender. However, she is only 15 this year and she has done tons of big meets (domestic and international). How she and her coach cope with such pressure and her physical side and also recovery will be tough to handle since she deals with all the long distance events including 400 and 800m free and also 400m IM. Hope she goes well. (2) Chen Qian: Not well known but she already did 4:06.09 this year but consistency has been demonstrated yet. (3) You Meihong: Li's teammate who did 4:07.8 in 2006 but did not improve since. She also did 8:31 in 800m so she is one to watch if she gets back on track. (4) Ren Junni, another 4:07.9 performaner this year. Little known for her. I also bet some of the more experienced swimmers in Zhejiang like Zheng Jing and Tang Jingzhi. There might be some surprising winner from Shanghai who do particularly well recently.
3. 200m back: (1) The top choice is definitely Zhao Jing who is already less than 0.5s from her senior's record. Zhao's target is definitely not just the NR but the AR set by Reiko Nakamura last summar. Luckily, Nakamura's record is also not far off Zhao's pb unlike Conventry's WR (2:05) which is still quite unreachable for her. This season also saw 3 sub 2:10 marks in the same meet when Zhou Yanxin and Bai Anqi who both made a breakthrough this year. Zhou who trained in Australia last year with her fellow backstroker, chen Wen, already showed sign of her rising last year when she did 2:11 in a couple of occasions. Bai Anqi, another up and coming swimmer finished 4th in AG in 2006 and has been wandering 2:11 and 2:12 for a few years. Both are (2) and (3) spots. (4) Liao Yali: Obviously, she is more for the service of her province. She surprised everyone by beating veteran Zhao Shu in 2005 NG in 2:10.8. This year, she is at 2:11. Who knows she might make a big pb in NG. The veterans might also be surprises: (5) Chen Yanyan: Multiple representatives of major games like Olympics and WC. Actually she is not particularly fast but very consistent around 2:11 for many years. She finally broke 2:11 in 2007 and has shown remarkable speed improvement in 100m back when she did 1:00.21 this year which is more than 1s faster than her previous best. (6) Zhao Shu: 2000 and 2004 Olympian and unlucky double silver medalists in 2 editions of NG (2001 and 2005). She might try everything to make this come true.
4. 200m IM: (1) With Qi Hui's improvement, this NR (and also AR) might be broken. Qi set another pb this year at 2:11.10, 1.4s away from Wu's record. Her strong leg is breastroke and she is also a pretty good freestyle swimmer so the determinant will be back and fly which are oppositely the strongest events of Wu. (2) Li Jiaxing: She has been pretty consistent for last few years with 2:12 in Olympics with another 2:12 this year. She is also strong in backstroke. (3) Liu Jing: She has been 2:15 swimmer for many years (since 2004 or 2005) but finally made a breakthru this year with top performance in 200m free and 200m IM.
5. 400m IM: Hard to break at this point: The closest might be (1) Li Xuanxu who did 4:37 in 2007, 4:36 in 2008 and (2) Qi Hui who consistently swam 4:38-4:39 region. Actually, there are a lot of potential sub 4-40 swimmers in China and I do not forsee they are able to capture Chen's AR.
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