China’s Ning Zetao was the headliner of the 2nd day of the 2014 World Military Swimming Championships in Tenero, Switzerland, as he took down the CISM World Record and very nearly got the Chinese National Record to boot.
In the day’s first final, Zetao swam to a 48.46 to beat an impressive field that included Russian Olympian Egeny Lagunov (49.82) as the runner-up.
That swim for the Chinese athlete Zetao just missed his own 48.27 from last September as the fastest ever by a Chinese male swimmer.
That was one of three new military competition World Records for the meet. The second swim into that category is Germany’s Dorothea Brandt, who won the women’s 100 breaststroke in 31.30. That beat China’s Ran Suo (31.42) by just a hair.
The third record of the session went to Jiao Liuyang, the defending Olympic Champion in the race. After a disappointing Worlds performance last year, where she was only 6th behind eventual winner and country mate Liu Zige, this is a good warm-up for Liuyang. Her target meet this year is the Asian Games in late September, so 2:07’s already are a good sign.
Outside of the record-breakers, one other noteworthy swim came in the men’s 50 breaststroke. Joao Gomes Jr. was a 27.54 in the men’s 50 breaststroke. That beat Germany’s Hendrik Feldwehr, who with a 27.96 came in as the runner-up, and for Gomes was just off of his season-best time.
Full meet results available here.
Full medal standings below:
1. China – 19 (8 gold, 4 silver, 7 bronze)
2. Brazil – 16 (7 gold, 3 silver, 6 bronze)
3. Germany – 15 (5 gold, 5 silver, 5 bronze)
4. Russia – 13 (2 gold, 9 silver, 2 bronze)
5. France – 3 (2 gold, 1 silver, 0 bronze)
6. Ukraine – 6 (1 gold, 2 silver, 3 bronze)
7. Kazakhstan – 1 (0 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze)
7. Switzerland – 1 (0 gold, 1 silver, 0 bronze)
9. Slovenia – 1 (0 gold, 0 silver, 1 bronze)