Pan Zhanle and Li Bingjie Complete ‘Quads’ at Chinese Nationals; Xu Jiayu Equals National Record in 50 Backstroke
Olympic star Pan Zhanle completed “The Quad” on Friday night at the Chinese National Championships. With a victory in the 50-meter freestyle, Pan brought his title total to four for the week, as he had previously earned gold medals in the 100 freestyle, 200 free and 400 freestyle. In the shortest distance, Pan was not as dominant, but the 20-year-old did enough to prevail in 22.19, just ahead of the 22.23 by He Junyi.
The reigning Olympic champion and world-recod holder in the 100 freestyle, Pan opened his week with a 3:45 showing in the 400 freestyle, then went 1:45 en route to a win in the 200 freestyle and clocked 47-high to beat the field in the 100 free. While he is best known for his prowess in the 100 freestyle, Pan’s range has distinuished the Chinese standout over the past few years.
Now, he’ll contemplate what type of program to attack at this summer’s World Championships in Singapore. Pan placed his entire emphasis on the 100 freestyle at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, so it will be interesting to see if he chases a double at the next global champs, the 200 freestyle being the most likely fit for that type of pursuit.
Pan wasn’t the only swimmer who garnered a fourth triumph for the week. Li Bingjie won the 800 freestyle in 8:20.68, complementing her prior gold medals in the 200 freestyle, 400 freestyle and 1500 freestyle. Li won the 400 free on the opening night of competition in 3:59.99, an effort that made her just the sixth woman in history to break the four-minute barrier.
Already the winner of the 100 backstroke and 200 backstroke this week, Xu Jiayu equaled his Chinese record in the semifinals of the 50 backstroke. Xu clocked in at 24.38, which tied the mark he first established at the 2023 edition of the Asian Games. Xu will chase the Asian record of 24.24 in the final, that standard held by Japan’s Junya Koga from the 2009 World Championships in Rome, when super suits were in play.
In the women’s 50 butterfly, Wu Qingfeng got to the wall first, going 25.77. She was followed by Wang Yichun (25.80) and Zhang Yufei (25.88). Zhang is the No. 3 performer in the history of the 50 fly, but she took a block of time away from the sport after the Paris Games and is still rounding into form. Earlier in the meet, she qualified for the World Championships in the 100 fly. Wu also advanced to the final of the women’s 50 freestyle as the No. 1 seed, thanks to a swim of 24.56. The second seed went to Cheng Yujie in 24.62.
The men’s 100 butterfly saw Chen Juner produce a mark of 51.03 for victory, with Xu Fang (51.51) following as the runnerup. Chen’s time is a positive development for China’s 400 medley relay, in which the country won gold at the 2024 Olympics. China’s question mark on the medley relay is typically the fly leg and Chen’s time on Friday is faster than the 51.19 split of Sun Jiajun from Paris.
Peng Xuwei (2:07.63) was the winner of the women’s 200 backstroke.
Thanks to the X account, Chinese Swimming News and Results (@CHNswim_fan), for its coverage of the competition.