Chinese Winter Nationals Day 3

Qingdao, Shandong Province

After winning 100m fly on day 1, Zhang Qibin took the men's 100m free in 50.03, pretty good swim for Chinese men. Jiang Yuhui, already a double champion in 200m/400m free, took 3rd (50.66), in front of Xu Qiheng (50.42) in 2nd position. 400m IM specialist, Li Xiang won men's 200m fly in slow 2:00.42 but good enough to fend off Wei Haobo (2:00.59) and Xu Zhijie (2:00.85). China appears to lack a new wave of 200m fly swimmers to pass the baton to after Wu Peng (25 years old) and Chen Yin (26 years old), who have been the Chinese men's 200m fly medalists/finalists in the major meets for the last 8 years. National record holder in men's 100m breaststroke, Xie Zhi, won 200m title in 2:14.74. On women's side, Youth Olympic champion in 2010, Liu Lan won women's 100m fly in 59.71, more than a second over Zhou Min, who won 400m IM on day 1. 100m breaststroke was unimpressed when the winning time was only 1:11.46 by Liu Siwen. This reflects the current status of women's breaststroke in China and breaststroke has been the weakest link this year which was magnified in Olympics. China has pretty strong backstroke leg (Zhao Jing, 5th), butterfly leg (Lu Ying, silver) and freestyle leg (Tang Yi, bronze) but with no finalist in 100m breastroke. The level all the sudden dropped so much when Ji Liping was still a bronze medalist in Worlds last year. Breaststroke seems to be one of the life lines for China to medal in relay. In 2009 Worlds, Chen Huijia's stunning 1:04 breaststroke leg was the key of their success when none of the relay team members medalled in the individual events. As their freestyle picks up, they also need to take some care of their breaststroke. In women's 400m free, it was another tussle between Cao Yue and Pang Wenxian after 200m and 800m free yesterday. Cao from Shanxi province had the last laugh to snatch the title at a fine 4:09.02, 0.13 faster than Pang. Zhang Yuhan was distant 3rd. Cao has medalled in all events from 100m to 800m free. It also seems that Shanxi province, really picks up in swimming. For the last couple of years, they only produced national champions like Xue Ruipeng and Zhao Jin, both breastroke swimmers.     

Men


100m freestyle

1. Zhang Qibin (Shandong Province) 00 minute 50.03 second
2. Xu Qiheng (Jiangsu Province) 00:50.42
3. Jiang Yuhui (Shanghai) 00:50.66

200m butterfly

1. Li Xiang (Tianjin) 2:00.42
2. Wei Haobo (Shanxi Province) 2:00.59
3. Xu Zhijie (Shanghai) 2:00.85

200m breaststroke

1. Xie Zhi (Yunan Province) 2:14.74
2. Ma Junjie (Guangdong Province) 2:15.22
3. Yan Zibei (Hubei Province) 2:16.62

Women

100m butterfly

1. Liu Lan (Bayi) 00:59.71
2. Zhou Min (Shanghai) 1:01.04
3. Zhang Sishi (Shanghai) 1:01.47

100m breaststroke

1. Liu Siwen (Beijing) 1:11.46
2. Li Qing (Guangdong Province) 1:11.69
3. Chen Qian (Sichuan Province) 1:12.05

400m freestyle

1. Cao Yue (Shanxi Province) 4:09.02
2. Pang Wenxian (Tianjin) 4:09.15
3. Zhang Yuhan (Bayi) 4:11.09