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Two more national records fall at Chinese Swimming Championships

Xinhua, April 15, 2017 Adjust font size:

Two more national records fell at the Chinese Swimming Championships as backstroke specialist Xu Jiayu and teenager Qin Haiyang both improved their personal bests here on Saturday.

The audiences seemed less lively than the previous five days as star swimmer Sun Yang got one day off. But two brand new national records highlighted the sixth competition day.

Xu was unparalleled in the 200m final as he sliced his own national record by 0.76 seconds to one minute and 54.03 seconds.

"It's not bad, but I was expecting a better result," said Xu who finished fourth in the event at last year's Rio Olympic Games.

The 21-year-old broke the Asian record of the men's 100m backstroke on Wednesday and his result of 51.86 seconds is only 0.01 second shy of the world record.

"I'm exhausted. I have lost 2 kg during the competition. I will focus more on the 100m race, because I'm more competitive in this event," said Xu who took the silver medal of the 100m backstroke at Rio Olympic Games last year.

Qin, who turns 18 next month, surprisingly clinched the title of the 200m breaststroke with a national record breaking time of two minutes and 8.71 seconds.

"I just focused on myself. It's really a surprise," said Qin who took the 200m individual medley silver medal on Friday.

Yan Zibei, who won the 50m and 100m breaststrokes both with national records at Qingdao, finished third in two minutes and 10.42 seconds while Mao Feilian took the silver medal in two minutes and 10.21 seconds.

In other finals, Zhu Menghui finished first in the women's 100m freestyle in 53.42 seconds. Shi Jinglin took the gold medal of the women's 200m breaststroke in two minutes and 24.52 seconds. Team Zhejiang raced to the top place in the men's 4x200m freestyle relay in seven minutes and 16.14 seconds.

As for Sun Yang, the 25-year-old Olympic champion has already competed in 10 races and swept the gold medals of four individual freestyle events. He is slated to compete in the 1,500m freestyle heats on Sunday. Endit