The 2023 National Swimming Championships and Doha World Championships Trials ushered in the men's 200-meter breaststroke final on the evening of December 14, and the "Frog King" Qin Haiyang competed. After fierce competition, Qin Haiyang played strongly, won the championship with an absolute advantage, and won the fifth gold medal in this championship.
Men's 200m breaststroke final
Champion: Qin Haiyang
Runner-up: Mak Sai Ting
Third runner-up: Song Yifei
World Record: China's Qin Haiyang - 2:05.48 [2023 Fukuoka World Championships]
Competition venue: Jinan Olympic Sports Center Natatorium
Event Highlights: Qin Haiyang will emerge in 2023, showing strong dominance in the men's breaststroke event, and the world record in the men's 200m breaststroke was also set by Qin Haiyang. Therefore, swimming fans expect Qin Haiyang to continue to work hard and continue to attack the record. In addition, there is one more highlight of this match, Hong Kong, China's rising star Mak Sai Ting performed well in the preliminaries, and advanced to the final with the second place in the preliminaries.
Preliminaries recap
Shanghai's Qin Haiyang showed an absolute advantage in the preliminaries, ranking first overall with a time of 2:13.35 and successfully qualified for the finals. The second place in the preliminaries was Mak Shiting with a time of 2:14.73. Liaoning Zhouke player Luan Honglin ranked third in the preliminaries, with a time of 2:16.20.
In addition, Shanxi player Song Yifei, Hunan Liangang player Liu Jiahao, Fujian Zhouke player Lin Zhepeng, Inner Mongolia player Cao Ruiming and Guangdong player Zhang Xizhe advanced to the finals. In addition, Hubei star Yan Zibei scored 2:17.88 in the preliminaries, ranking 12th overall and missing the final, and the 28-year-old state declined rapidly.
Among the finalists, only the 24-year-old Qin Haiyang is a post-90s player, and the rest of the players are currently under 20 years old. Among them, Mak Shiting is currently only 17 years old, and won the gold medal in the men's 200m breaststroke at the World Youth Championships in September 2023, with a winning time of 2:11.84, with a good overall performance. Younger than Mak Shiting are Lin Zhepeng and Liu Jiahao, Lin Zhepeng was born in 2007, and Liu Jiahao was born in 2009.
Final Recap
The race began, Qin Haiyang's starting technique was one position ahead, and he took the lead in completing the 50-meter turn in 28.45 seconds, and came to the 100-meter distance, and Qin Haiyang completed the half-course task in 1:01.30.
In the second half of the wonderful competition, when it came to the 150-meter distance, Qin Haiyang took the lead to finish in 1:34.95, 3.67 seconds ahead of the second place. After that, Qin Haiyang looked to slow down a bit, and finally won the championship with a time of 2:09.45, still as much as 2.67 seconds ahead of the second-place finisher.
In addition, Mak Shiting won the second place in 2:12.12, and Song Yifei finished third in 2:13.97.
Qin Haiyang's record: "Frog King" Qin Haiyang has maintained a good condition, and has always played strongly in this National Championships, winning 1 gold every day in the past few days, and winning 4 gold medals in the first 4 days. In this game, Qin Haiyang won the championship without any suspense and won the fifth gold medal of this championship.