Yang Junxuan Snags Speedy 1:55.65 200 Free As Season’s #1

CHINESE LONG COURSE INVITATIONAL

• Thursday, December 31st – Sunday, January 3rd
• Shijiazhuang City, China
• LCM (50m)
• SwimSwam Preview
• Day 1 Prelims Recap/Day 1 Finals Recap
• Day 2 Prelims Recap
• Results via Asian Media

In addition to 22-year-old Zhang Yufei‘s impressive 56.06 outings to take the women’s 100m fly, day 2 of this Chinese New Year’s LC meet saw additional stellar performances across the board.

As a reminder, prelims are taking place in the evening while finals are slated for each morning session, giving athletes a taste of the timing that will be place come the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games this July.

The men’s and women’s 200m free events, for example, saw some fireworks go off, courtesy of Wang Shun and Yang Junxuan.

For Wang in the men’s race, the 200m IM winner already here threw down his swiftest time since 2011, winning the final in a time of 1:46.91. Wang registered the only sub-1:47 time here, although Ji Xinjie was right on his heels, hitting the wall in a mark of 1:47.01 as runner-up.

Wang owns a lifetime best of 1:46.14 in this 2free event, a time he produced nearly a decade ago at the 7th National City Games. That outing rendered him as China’s 4th fastest performer all-time.

His 1:46.91 from this morning’s final now checks the IM Olympic medalist in as the 9th fastest swimmer in the world this season, while Ji represents the world’s 10th fastest.

For the women’s edition of the 200m free, former world record holder Junxuan was untouchable, posting a winning effort of 1:55.65 to beat the field by nearly 3 seconds. Her outing here this morning sits within a second of her own personal best and Chinese national standard of 1:54.98, a result she threw down in January 2020 at the FINA Champions Series.

Her 1:55.65 mark from this morning now slides into the all-time Chinese performance rankings in slot #7 with Yang owning 4 out of the top 7 Chinese performances ever.

All-Time Women’s 200 Freestyle Performances by Chinese Swimmers:

1. 1:54.98 – Yang Junxuan, 2020
2. 1:55.05 – Pang Jiaying, 2008
3. 1:55.25 – Shen Duo, 2016
4. 1:55.43 – Yang Junxuan, 2019
5. 1:55.47 – Yang Yu, 2009
6. 1:55.52 – Yang Junxuan, 2020
7. 1:55.65 – Yang Junxuan, 2020

World rankings-wise, Yang now overtakes Aussie Ariarne Titmus as the #1 swimmer in the world this season.

Olympic silver medalist and 2019 world champion Xu Jiayu raced his pet 100m back event this morning, punching a result of 53.35. That was well off his 52.37 world-leading mark from last September, but enough to get the gold handily at his domestic meet.

Peng Xuwei wound up on top of the women’s 100m back podium, registering a winning effort of 1:00.13. That held off a charging Wang Xueer, who finished just a fingernail later in 1:00.21.

Olympic bronze medalist in this event, Fu Yuanhui, produced the only sub-minute prelim time last night of 59.58 but fell to the bronze medal position in this final. She touched in 1:00.95 in the race.

Additional Notes:

• The men’s 200m breast saw Qin Haiyang produced the fastest time of the final in 2:10.78.
• Yu Jingyao won the women’s 200m breast in a time of 2:24.41. Ye Shiwen finished in 4th in 2:30.04.
• The men’s 100m fly saw just one man get under the 53-second threshold in the form of Sun Jiajun. Sun hit a time of 52.51 for gold.
• The men’s 800m free was won by Cheng Long in 7:53.84, while Wang Jianjiahe produced a time of 8:21.31 to take the women’s version.