Xu Jiayu Rips 1:55.26 200 Back At Chinese C’ships

2020 CHINESE SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS

• September 26th – October 2nd
• Qingdao, China
• LCM (50m)
• Results via Asian Media

Day 1 results are now available from the 2020 Chinese Swimming Championships, revealing an impressive 200m backstroke swim from Olympian Xu Jiayu.

25-year-old Xu topped the Qingdao podium in a time of 1:55.26, a mark which surpassed the prelim swim of 1:57.15 the ace put up at last year’s FINA World Aquatic Championships. There in Gwangju, Xu clinched the 5th seed but withdrew from the individual event to instead focus on the men’s 4x200m free relay at the meet.

His 1:55.26 here (splits unavailable at this time) would have rendered Xu the bronze medalist at Worlds, edging out Luke Greenbank’s 1:55.85.

Xu owns 18 of the top 20 200m back performances all-time for his nation of China, with yesterday’s head-turner coming in as the man’s 13th best on a personal level. It ties the time he logged at the 2017 World Championships in Budapest that rendered him the 5th place finisher there.

In other swims, we reported yesterday how Yu Hexin fired off a new Chinese national record in the men’s 50m free, producing a time of 21.79 for his first-ever sub-22 second effort. However, he was denied the chance to further lower his mark in the final, as he failed pre-competition performance tests which determined which athletes were ‘deemed fit’ to participate in the finals. You can read more on that situation here.

In Yu’s stead, the 50m free title went to both Liu Shaofeng and Yang Jintong who tied in 22.72.

Backstroker Fu Yuanhui was another athlete who fell victim to the pre-competition test scenario, having to bypass the final of the 100m back. Wang Xu’er topped the podium in Fu’s final absence, clocking a time of 59.55.

The men’s 400m free saw Ji Xinjie get the job done for gold in 3:48.87.