Latest news with #ChineseSpringNationalChampionships
South China Morning Post
24-03-2025
- Sport
- South China Morning Post
Olympic swim champ Zhang Yufei: just looking at pool made me feel sick, now ‘I'm back'
Olympic champion Zhang Yufei has opened up about how looking at the pool made her feel physically sick, and she took a five-month break from swimming to decide if she even wanted to continue in the sport. Advertisement But in a post on RedNote on Monday, the double Tokyo Games gold medallist announced, 'I'm back', and said she had set her sights on the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. To mark her return, Zhang competed in the 100m butterfly at the Chinese Spring National Championships in Qingdao on Sunday, finishing fifth in 58.12 seconds. 'Yes, I'm back [and] I'm very happy to be back in the pool,' she said. 'After a half-year absence, the last month of training has made me feel different. 'When I took part in the World Cup last October, I got a kind of sickness, the type that made me want to vomit when I looked at the pool. It sounds ridiculous, but that was my true feeling at that time, I was even a little glad that I was injured so that I could avoid the pool: out of sight, out of mind.' Zhang Yufei is interviewed by reporters before the closing meeting of the Third Session of the 14th National People's Congress in Beijing on March 11. Photo: EPA-EFE The 26-year-old said that for the past five months she had not gone near a swimming pool, except for the weeks of training she did to prepare for the spring championships.
South China Morning Post
23-03-2025
- Sport
- South China Morning Post
China swim star Qin Haiyang back in Olympic gold form, eyes World Championships glory
By any metric, Chinese swim star Qin Haiyang struggled at last summer's Paris Olympics, failing to make the final of the 200m breaststroke and finishing seventh in the 100m event. Advertisement But the triple world champion, who dominated the 50m, 100m and 200m races in Fukuoka in 2023, was in gold-medal form at last week's Chinese Spring National Championships, showing the kind of speed that could make his rivals nervous. The 25-year-old won the 200m breaststroke in two minutes, 7.44 seconds, which would have secured bronze in Paris, and swam a 58.66 in the 100m, a time good enough to have topped the podium in the French capital. With the World Championships coming up in Singapore in July, Qin said his performance in Qingdao showed he was getting back to his best. 'My performance is similar to where I was in 2023 when I was approaching my peak,' he said. 'It's a good start and a sign that I'm regaining my best condition. Advertisement 'I didn't expect this result. My goal was simply to swim under 2:09. Today's result is faster than my time at last year's National Championships [2:08.87].'
South China Morning Post
12-03-2025
- Sport
- South China Morning Post
Swimmer Sun Yang to take part at Chinese Spring National meet, paving way for National Games
Disgraced Chinese swimmer Sun Yang will next week compete for only the second time since his four-year drug ban was lifted in 2024, potentially paving the way for him to compete at the National Games. Advertisement Three-time Olympic gold medallist Sun confirmed that he will compete at the Chinese Spring National Championships in Qingdao, Shandong province, which runs from March 18 to 23. The event gives Chinese swimmers the chance to qualify for the country's national championships in Shenzhen in May – one of two qualifying competitions for the National Games. Sun, who was the first Chinese athlete to win an Olympic gold medal in men's swimming, competed in the 400 metres freestyle at the National Summer Swimming Championships in August 2024. His winning time of three minutes and 54.98 seconds was under the 3:58.71 that will be needed to qualify for the National Games, which will be held in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau from November 9-21. '[On Saturday], I finished the plateau training. Before leaving, I habitually go to the training hall to practise in the water,' Sun said on Weibo.
