On the evening of December 17, Beijing time, good news came from Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Zhang Yufei, the women's 200m butterfly champion at the Tokyo Olympics, swam 2 minutes 3.01 seconds in the final of the 2021 Short Course World Championships to win the championship easily, which was her first gold medal at the Short Pool World Championships, which was also the first medal and gold medal of the Chinese swimming team in this event. The last time a Chinese player won the event was at the Sweden Short Pool World Championships 24 years ago, when the gold medalist was Liu Limin.
Some members of the Chinese swimming team went to the United Arab Emirates, the leaders of the men's and women's teams were ST Olympic champions Wang Shun and Zhang Yufei, who had already appeared on the first day of the competition, Zhang Yufei and his teammates cooperated to win the 5th place in the women's 4×100m freestyle relay final, while Wang Shun, who was not in his best form, ranked 5th in the men's 200m individual medley final with a time of 1 minute 53.41 seconds, and did not win the project's three consecutive championships.
The 200-meter butterfly is Zhang Yufei's first individual event at this competition, and it is also her absolute strength, in the 50-meter long pool competition at the Tokyo Olympic Games, she won the championship with an absolute advantage. In Abu Dhabi, although it was changed to a short 25-meter pool, the result was the same. Zhang Yufei was unstoppable, starting to take the lead from the beginning, and then leading all the way, the first to reach the finish line hit the wall, the time was 2 minutes 3.01 seconds, 1.34 seconds faster than the American runner who won the second place. In addition to the 200-meter butterfly, Zhang Yufei will also register for the women's 50-meter and 100-meter butterfly competitions at the Short Pool World Championships, and if there is no accident, there will be a gold medal in the account.
Text/Beiqing Sports Liu Ailin
![The first gold of the Chinese team! Zhang Yufei won the gold medal in the 200m butterfly at the Short Course World Championships with an absolute advantage[fig]](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAP///wAAACwAAAAAAQABAAACAkQBADs=)