Zhang Yufei Dethrones Regan Smith In 100 Fly World Rankings

2023 CHINESE SPRING CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Sunday, March 19th – Friday, March 24th
• Qingdao, China
• LCM (50m)
• Day 1 Recap/Day 2 Recap/Day 3 Recap
• Results via Asian Media

Olympic multi-medalist Zhang Yufei led the charge on day four of the 2023 Chinese Spring Championships.

The 24-year-old took the women’s 100m butterfly in a time of 56.58, holding off Wang Yichun and Zhang Yifan. Wang touched in 57.05 for silver while Zhang clinched bronze well back in 59.37.

Zhang won the silver medal in this event at the 2020 Olympic Games to pair with her 200m fly gold from there in Tokyo. Her time tonight easily dips under the World Aquatics ‘A’ cut of 58.33 needed for this summer’s World Championships, while runner-up Wang also made the grade.

Zhang’s 56.58 now ranks her #1 in the world this season, dethroning American Regan Smith who previously wore the crown with her season-best 56.60 from the Pro Swim Series in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

The men’s 100m fly saw Wang Changhao get it done for gold with the 20-year-old touching in a mark of 51.45. That held a healthy advantage over Sun Jiajun who wrangled up silver in 51.87 while Chen Juner was also right there at the wall with a bronze medal-worthy result of 51.88.

For Wang, his outing here shaved .20 off of his previous lifetime best of 51.65 performed at the 2021 National Games and inches him closer to the Chinese national record of 50.96 Li Zhuhao put on the books at the 2017 World Championships.

Both Wang and Sun cleared the World Aquatics ‘A’ standard of 51.96 needed for Fukuoka while Wang now checks in as the world’s 3rd fastest swimmer this season.

Additional Winners

• Wang Xueer clocked a time of 59.61 to take the women’s 100m backstroke with Wan Letian getting to the wall in 1:00.02 as the runner-up. Both notched times good enough to most likely make the World Championships squad.
• Already a multi-event winner here, 29-year-old Wang Shun notched an effort of 1:47.15 to top the men’s 200m free podium, although he just missed the Fukuoka minimum 1:47.06 standard.
• The women’s 100m breast saw Yang Chang get to the wall first in 1:07.34, narrowly getting under the 1:07.35 ‘A’ cut for the World Championships.
• Yu Yiting took the women’s 400m IM in a result of 4:38.15 as the only racer of the field to dip under the 4:40 threshold. Her time ranks her 5th in the world on the season while runner-up Ge Chutong‘s time of 4:42.00 joined Yu in clearing the 4:43.06 time standard needed for World Championships consideration.