13TH ANNUAL NATIONAL GAMES OF CHINA
- Tianjin, China
- August 27th – September 8th
- SwimSwam Meet Preview
- Day 1 Recap
- Day 2 Recap
- Results
All eyes may have been on Olympic champion Sun Yang in the beginning of tonight’s finals in Tianjin, but by the end of the session the attention turned to teenager Li Bingjie. The 15-year-old fired off a new Chinese National Record and Asian Record en route to gold in the women’s 400m freestyle tonight on day 2 of the National Games of China, winning the event by almost 3 seconds.
Li cranked out a wicked-fast time tonight of 4:01.75 to establish herself as the first Chinese woman ever to venture into sub-4:02 territory. The previous Chinese National Record stood at the 4:02.35 Chen Qian earned at this same meet way back in 2009, a mark that also stood as the continental record.
Entering the meet, Li’s fastest effort was the 4:02.52 she collected at Chinese Spring Nationals, a time that was already within two tenths of that 2009 national record. She then earned bronze at the 2017 FINA World Championships behind gold medalist Katie Ledecky (USA) and silver medalist Leah Smith (USA), racing her way to a mark of 4:03.25. Her time tonight not only beats both of her earlier efforts, but would have garnered bronze at the 2016 Olympic Games.
Splits were not available at time of publishing, but will be included once provided.
Today was 200 semis 2 girls swimming 1:56 and 3 1:57 tomorrow may be big
She is their top girl swimmer at the moment . It is not a crime to be a fast 15 year old . 39 years ago 3 15 year olds & a 14 year old swept distance swimming taking yuuuuge chunks off the WR .from 200-800. Politics intervened & their run ended ..
Bing is not yet breaking non Ledecky records & she has must snuck by Janets 80O. If formetly average swimmers like the Danish & NZ ladies in their mid 20s can swim 8.16-17 , why can’t Bing at 15?
The boycott of the ’80 Games truly robbed Sippy Woodhead of the chance at Olympic greatness. If you take the 1980 US Olympic Trials at face value, Sippy made the team in the 100 through 800 freestyles. It wasn’t likely, but she had a chance to win all four of those events. She had a very good shot of winning the 200 freestyle.
She managed to hang on for four more years and win the silver medal at the ’84 Games, but that was well past her peak.
That 200 freestyle she swam at the ’78 World Champs was one of the best swims ever, in my opinion.
Sippy and salkinov suffered more. She of greatness he of being first triple Olympic champions
I love Chinese Nationals. It is like a no-holds barred drug fest where you rarely see similar performances again.
Often the times there do seem strangely fast. That said, Li Bungjie had been on the rise for a couple of years now. She was a breaking performer at this year’s World Championships and put up some of the best splits of anyone at the meet on the Chinese 4×200 FR.
Yea.. a .8 second drop over a 400 from a 15 year old.
I’m sure we’ll never see this again.
Ariarne 15 , April 2016 .4.12.4 .
Ariane 16 April 2017 4.04.8 . July 2017 16 4.04.4 .
So there you have your 8 sec drop for a 15 to 16 year old .
Bing 14 Aprl 2016 4. 06.4
Bing 15 April 2017 4.02.6 4.01.7 sept 2017 ..
There you have a 4.7 drop for a 14-15 year old .
well done researching . Great comparison
A clueless statement. Live and work in China and try to understand their culture, and you’d think otherwise. Winning at the National Games is like winning a $1 billion lottery ticket. You’d swim fast as sh*t too if you had that option…
Doping
Bingjie Li 4.01.75 split time
28.23-58.51-1.29.04-1.59.73-2.30.30-3.01.11-3.31.96-4.01.75