Amid Positive Doping Test Situation, Yang Junxuan Hits 52.68 Chinese 100 Free Record

By Retta Race on SwimSwam

2024 CHINESE NATIONAL SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Friday, April 19th – Sunday, April 27th
• Shenzhen, China
• LCM (50m)
• SwimSwam Preview
• Day 1 Recap/Day 2 Recap/Day 3 Recap/Day 4 Recap
• Results
• Livestream

Another national record bit the dust at the 2024 Chinese National Swimming Championships, this time at the hands of Yang Junxuan.

Racing in the women’s 100m freestyle final tonight in Shenzhen, 22-year-old Yang hit a time of 52.68 to establish the fastest outing of her career.

She logged the sole time of the field under the 53-second threshold as Wu Qingfeng posted 53.25 as the silver medalist and Cheng Yujie collected bronze in 53.27. Additional finishers included Zhu Menghui clocking 54.12, Yu Yiting nailing 54.24 and Li Bingjie earning 6th place in 54.36.

As for Yang, her time overtook the previous national record of 53.90 Zhang Yufei put on the books in the prelims of the 100m free at the 2020 Chinese Nationals. She matched that time again one year later in Qingdao. Those performances rendered Zhang the only Chinese woman in history to break the 53-second barrier but now Yang joins her in that accomplishment.

Split comparisons between Zhang and Yang reveal a faster back half for the newly minted national record holder, beating the former’s 2nd 50m by .43

Zhang Yufei‘s Old CHN Record – 52.90	Yang Junxuan‘s New CHN Record – 52.68
25.22	25.43
27.68	27.25

Top 5 Chinese Women’s LCM 100 Freestyle Performers All-Time

1. Yang Junxuan – 52.68, 2024
2. Zhang Yufei – 52.90, 2020 & 2021
3. Pang Jiaying – 53.13, 2009
4. Cheng Yujie – 53.26, 2023
5. Tang Yi – 53.28, 2012

The Asian Record remains at the 52.02 Hong Kong Olympian Siobhan Haughey established at last year’s Berlin World Cup stop. Japan’s Rikako Ikee is the 2nd-best Asian female ever in 52.79 but now Yang represents the 3rd-swiftest Asian in history.

Yang is a two-time Olympic medalist having earned women’s 4x200m free relay gold and 4x100m mixed medley silver at the 2020 Games in Tokyo.

Yang’s name was revealed among the list of 23 Chinese swimmers who tested positive for the banned substance trimetazidine (TMZ) at the start of the calendar year in 2021. The Chinese Anti-Doping Agency (CHINADA) did not sanction the athletes and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) did not dispute the findings that the swimmers were inadvertently contaminated.

Additional Information:

• Who Was a Part of the 23 Positive Swimmers from China and Who Was Not
• WADA Points to Contamination
• China Responds to ‘Fake News’
• Full Recap: 23 Chinese Swimmers Fail Drug Test

SwimSwam: Amid Positive Doping Test Situation, Yang Junxuan Hits 52.68 Chinese 100 Free Record