Chinese Water Games 1: Zhang Fenglin, Gao Chang, Zhu Qianwei, Wang Xiangcheng and Li Xuanxu won with fast times

After 3 days of competitions, the 1st swimming NR was broken after the post-shiny suit era. Zhang Fenglin set men's 200m back NR in 1:57.86, 5/100th faster than than Ouyang Kinpeng's old mark. Zhang comes from the same province as the ex-AR holder of this event, Fu Yong, has been NG champion (at 1:58.17), National champion in April (at 1:58.24). He is the 2nd Chinese to break 1:58 mark after Ouyang. Another Chinese, Diao Jigong, also swam a swift 1:58.81 in recent World military swimming championships last month. Diao was national champion at 1:59.29 in April, 2009. It is good to see some improvements in Chinese men's backstroke which is relatively weak. On the other hand, women's 50m back world no. 1 was returned to Gao Chang at 27.54.

This meet also featured the 2nd textile 1:56 mark in Chinese women's 200m free after Lu Bin set back in 1994 (at 1:56.89). Zhu Qianwei recovered from low fever and swam 1:56.93. Surprisingly, Tang Yi was still doing well after a packed schedule of competitions. She won 6 events in Youth Olympics and now she swam another 1:57 which has been her 3rd 1:57 this year (April Nationals, Mare Monstrum, and now). She also swam a 25.11 in 50m free yesterday, her pb in textile but only settled for second behind Li Zheshi, 15 of age, who did a fast 24.92. Jiao Liuyang also got a strong in this event with 25.15, also pb. She was also invincible in her main events, winning both 100m and 200m fly in swift 57.7 and 2:5.6, respectively.

First day also featured a top 10 swim from men when Wang Chengxian from Shandong did a 4:13.09 in 400m IM, defeating the current NR holder, Huang Chaosheng by more than 1sec. Huang repeated his time in April Nationals for 2nd (4:14.75). On the women side, Li Xuanxu is still dominant in 400m IM as she did a 4:35. She also won 400m free in 4:05, 4 sec faster than 2nd swimmer.

However, Chen Qian, swimmer from Shangdong province, who set 2 ARs last year in the women 400m and 800m free, has performed under par so far. She did a modest 1:59.25 in 200m free and then a slow 4:17 in 400m free. Don't know if this is case this time: National Games champions in women 400 and 800m free have been all shooting stars. Take a look of these winners: 1993: Zhou Guanbin; 1997: Chen Yan; 2001: Zhang Liang, 2005: Yang Jieqiao and 2009: Chen Qian. All these swimmers achieved top ranked marks in both events in their winning year but almost no one (except one) can improve their time after this. Zhou was one of the 7 swimmers who was tested positive in 1994 Hiroshima Asian Games. She did improve in Asian Games but the times were not counted. Chen did a previous AR 4:05.00/8:27.94 in 1997 and won World title in 4:06 next year. Since then, she seldom swam these events and she achieved no international success after 1998 Worlds. Zhang Liang in 2001 achieved a world no. 1 mark in 400m free at 4:06.97. She is definitely a dark horse and the biggest shooting star ever. She still managed a 55s in 100m free the next year but almost disappeared after 2002. 4 years later, Yang Jieqiao won another double in 2005 with relatively slow times (4:07.54 and 8:29). She was still able to maintain that form until 2007. In that year, her 800m time had improved to 8:26 but she did not go to Worlds. According to a media report, she was having a surgery before Worlds 2007 due to a "female problem". Somehow, in late 2007 and early 2008, she decided to switch to open water and it seemed that she had qualified for the Olympics. Finally, she did not compete. She was competitng the 2009 National Games but could no longer make a big wave in the pool when a new dark horse, Chen Qian, was born, packing 2 ARs away. One controversy around Yang is that the one behind Yang may be coach Zhou Ming, who was notorious during 1990s for the drug issues in China and by right, he should not be involved in any form of coaching. Anyway, Yang has not been doing so well in recent years and only managed a 2:02 in 200m free and 4:20 in 400m free in Chinese aquatics games. If you don't try to spot her, you may not know she is still around the scene. Will Chen Qian be another sinking dark horse?

Finally, Sun Yang raced his 1st men's 400m free in 2010 and did a 3:45, which is the 3rd fastest in the world. Zhang Lin and Sun will definitely having a good fight with the reigning Asian Games champion, Park Tae Hwan. With Matsuda from Japan, it will be a world class field in coming Asian Games, featuring world no. 1-2-3 and 6th.