China’s controversial National Swimming Championships have ended with a new world record for the mixed 4x100m medley relay.
The Qingdao event, which concluded on Friday, made headlines for swimmers missing out on finals despite qualifying in the pool, because of pre-competition physical tests.
There was no such controversy on the final day when a team of Xu Jiayu, Zhang Yufei, Yan Zibei and Yang Junxuan smashed the previous record time.
The quartet completed their medley in 3 minutes, 38.41 seconds – 0.15 seconds faster than the previous best set by a US team made up of Matt Grevers, Lilly King, Caeleb Dressel and Simone Manuel at the 2017 World Championships in Budapest.
Two-time world champion Xu led off with the backstroke, Yan followed with breaststroke before Zhang, who set an Asian record in the women’s 100m butterfly in midweek, and then Yang’s freestyle.
Zhang’s time of 55.62 seconds on Tuesday was 0.45 faster than Asia’s previous best and only 0.14 seconds slower than Swedish swimmer Sarah Sjostrom’s world mark.
“It was beyond my imagination. I had thought the best result would be around 55.8 seconds,” Zhang said after her Asian record.
“This is the first major tournament in the last 11 months because of the epidemic. I know I can swim faster this time and want to see how fast I could be.
“The Tokyo Olympics were postponed, and this is good for me. Now I have more time to prepare and will try to show my best in the Olympics,” Zhang, who also set a China record in the 100m free at nationals, said.
Wang Jianjiahe set an Asian record in the women’s 1,500m freestyle but missed out on the final as her physical test results were not in the top eight.
