On April 19, the 2024 National Swimming Championships and the domestic trials for the Paris Olympic Games kicked off at the Shenzhen Universiade Center Gymnasium. In the finals of the four events held that night, Pan Zhanle and Li Bingjie won the gold medals in the men's and women's 400-meter freestyle finals respectively, and the Zhejiang, Shandong, Henan, and Guangdong United teams and Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Lu and Hubei United teams, which were composed of the main lineup of the Chinese swimming team, won the men's and women's 4×100-meter freestyle relay finals respectively.
Zhang Yufei, who ushered in her 26th birthday on the same day, won the gold medal in the women's 4×100m freestyle relay final as the first place in the women's 100-meter butterfly semifinals and advanced to the finals. Pan Zhanle also won two gold medals in the one-day doubles.
Zhang Yufei
The swimming championships in the first half of each year are domestic trials for international competitions that year, and this year is no exception, and the 2024 National Swimming Championships will be used as the selection of the national swimming team for the Paris Olympics. According to the "Selection Measures for Swimming Events for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games" announced by the Aquatics Center of the General Administration of Sports of China at the end of last year, the selection of athletes for the Paris Olympics by the Chinese swimming team is mainly based on the results of the 2023 Fukuoka World Aquatics Championships and the 2024 Doha World Aquatics Championships, as well as the results of this championship.
In terms of individual events, the two athletes with the best results who have reached the Olympic A standard in these three events are directly selected. Up to now, referring to the list of standards for the Paris Olympics published on the official website of the World Swimming Federation, the Chinese swimming team still has some events that have failed to achieve full participation, such as men's 50-meter freestyle, men's 200-meter backstroke, women's 200-meter breaststroke and other events, only one person has reached the Olympic A standard.
Qin Haiyang
The 2024 National Swimming Championships will be fully benchmarked and simulated in the Paris Olympic Games, that is, there will be 35 events (including 17 events for men and women and 1 mixed relay for men and women), with the preliminaries at 11 a.m. and the final at 8:30 p.m., lasting nine days, one day longer than the World Swimming Championships, with an average of four finals per night. This will lengthen the tournament, but it can be a good thing for those who are multi-sporting, as it can avoid or reduce the overwork of competing in multiple finals in a short period of time in the evening.
Zhang Yufei, who has just been awarded the "2023 Moving China Person of the Year", is highly anticipated for her performance in this competition, and she will participate in the 50m, 100m, 200m freestyle, as well as the 100m, 200m butterfly 5 individual events and the men's and women's 4×100m medley relay competitions, showing her true character as a "model worker" again. "Frog King" Qin Haiyang registered two breaststroke events in this competition, namely the men's 100-meter and 200-meter breaststroke (the Olympic Games do not have a 50-meter breaststroke).
Pan Zhanle
Pan Zhanle, the world record holder in the men's 100m freestyle, signed up for four individual events in the 50m, 100m, 200m and 400m freestyle. In addition, Wang Shun, a veteran who won gold at the Tokyo Olympics, signed up for the 200-meter freestyle and 100-meter backstroke in addition to the main event of the 200-meter medley. Xu Jiayu, who won five gold medals at the Asian Games last year, only registered for the 100m and 200m backstroke events.
In the competition on the evening of the 19th, Zhang Yufei, who coincided with her 26th birthday that day, won the first place in the semifinals of the women's 100-meter butterfly with a good time of 56.47 seconds, and successfully advanced to the final of the event on the evening of the 20th. Qin Haiyang, who belongs to the same coaching staff as Zhang Yufei, swam 58.62 seconds in the semifinals of the men's 100-meter breaststroke, and also advanced to the final of the event the next evening as the first place.
Li Bingjie
In the men's 400m freestyle final, Pan Zhanle, who mainly focuses on short-distance freestyle, showed a comprehensive technical level, endurance and comprehensive ability, and won the championship with a personal best of 3:45.58 and reached the Olympic A standard. The women's 400m freestyle final was won by Li Bingjie with a time of 4:04.03, and she deserves to be the best in the Asian women's middle and long distance freestyle.
In the women's 4×100m freestyle relay final, the Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Lu and Hubei United team composed of Cheng Yujie, Yang Junxuan, Wu Qingfeng and Zhang Yufei won the championship with an absolute advantage of 3:34.43, and Zhang Yufei also successfully won her first gold in this event. This lineup is actually the main lineup of the current Chinese swimming team in this event.
In the men's 4×100m freestyle relay final in the finale of the night, the Zhejiang, Shandong, Henan and Guangdong United Team composed of Chen Juner, Wang Xizhe, Ji Xinjie and Pan Zhanle won the championship with a time of 3:15.02, and Pan Zhanle won two gold medals in one day.
Text/Beiqing Sports Liu Ailin