Xu Jiayu, Pan Zhanle Nail Paris-Worthy Outings On Day 3 of 2024 Chinese Nationals

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
• Results
• Livestream

We entered day 3 of the 2024 Chinese National Swimming Championships, the competition which represents the last chance opportunity for the nation’s swimmers to book their tickets to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

This competition, combined with the finals of the 2023 and 2024 World Championships will determine the roster,

We reported how the swim of the night went to 20-year-old Tang Qianting with the athlete lowering her own newly-minted Asian Record from last night’s women’s 100m breast semi-finals.

Tang reaped gold in a monster performance of 1:04.39 to become the 4th-best performer in history.

• World Champion Tang Qianting Lowers Newly-Minted 100 Breast Asian Record to 1:04.39

19-year-old freestyle phenom Pan Zhanle was in the water to contest the final of the men’s 200m free.

The 100m free world record holder put up a semi-final time last night of 1:45.70 to stake his claim on the race He dropped just slightly in this evening’s main event, ultimately touching the wall in 1:45.68, still good enough for gold.

Pan opened in 52.20 and closed in 53.48 to get the victory narrowly over runner-up Ji Xinjie. 

26-year-old Ji settled for silver in 1;45.86, within range of his best-ever 1:45.48, while Zhang Zhanshuo rounded out the podium in 1:46.28.

Additional finishers among the top 6 included: 4th – Fei Liewei, 1:46.88; 5th – Liu Wudi, 1:47.01; 6th – Niu Guangsheng, 1:47.17.

Ji, Pan and Zhang were 3 of the 4 members of the national record-setting men’s 4x200m free relay from this year’s World Championships. Along with Wang Haoyu they clocked a time of 7:01.84 to just out-touch South Korea by .10 for gold.

18-year-old Yu Yiting topped the women’s 400m IM podium, producing a winning effort of 4:39.60.

She represented the sole swimmer of the field to get under the 4:40 barrier, with Yu Zidi close behind in 4:40.97. Qu Jianing rounded out the top 3 in 4:43.11.

The World Aquatics Olympic Qualification Time rests at 4:38.53 which means the trio of performers missed the selection standard for Paris.

Two-time Olympic medalist Yang Junxuan got it done in the women’s 200m free, however, with the 22-year-old crushing a winning time of 1:54.37.

That easily cleared the OQT of 1:57.26 and tied the opening 200m Yang threw down as lead-off on the Chinese women’s gold medal-winning 4x200m free relay from Tokyo. That represented the 200m free national record for a handful of months until Tang Muhan lowered it to 1:54.26 at the 2021 National Games.

Tang settled for 4th place in tonight’s race in a mark of 1:56.85 behind silver medalist Li Bingjie who also hit the OQT with a result of 1:56.29. Bronze went to Liu Yaxin in 1:56.56.

Yang now checks in as the 4th-swiftest performer in the world this season.

Finally, the men’s 100m back saw Olympic medalist Xu Jiayu post a strong performance of 52.39 to dominate the final.

Xu split 25.51/26.88 to earn the gold, within range of his season-best of 52.05 logged for last year’s Asian Games title. That rendered the 28-year-old the #1 swimmer in the world right now in the men’s 1back.

200m IM Olympic champion Wang Shun snared silver in 53.78, a new personal best by .02. His previous PB checked in at the 53.80 notched as lead-off in the prelims of the mixed medley relay at last year’s Asian Games.

Bronze tonight went to Wang Gukailai in 54.01.

Xu cleared the OQT of 53.74 while Wang fell painstakingly just .04 outside the standard

Semi-Finals

• Wang Xueer led the women’s 100m back semi-final with a swim of 59.45. Peng Xuwei is in the hunt, carrying a semi swim of 59.60 while Wan Letian is also in contention with her 59.77 performance.

SwimSwam: Xu Jiayu, Pan Zhanle Nail Paris-Worthy Outings On Day 3 of 2024 Chinese Nationals