Tang Qianting hits women's 50m breaststroke Asian record

Tang Qianting broke the women's 50m breaststroke Asian record twice on the final day of the Chinese National Championships (25m) in Beijing on Saturday, with one world record, three Asian records and eight national short course marks fallen during the three-day competition.

Tang clocked 29.43 seconds in the morning's heat and lifted the Asian mark again to 29.19 in the final.

"I felt more excited and better in shape in the final. I was very satisfied with my performance during the competition," said the 18-year-old, who had set a new Asian record in the 100m breaststroke in 1:03.15 on Friday.

In the women's 100m freestyle, Olympic relay champion Yang Junxuan hit the national record twice as she stormed 51.92 seconds in the heat and 51.78 in the final. Cheng Yujie took the silver in 52.57.

"I was not in my best form and I realized that I was too slow in turns and underwater kicks in the short-course competitions. I will try to improve that and do my best at the Melbourne worlds," Yang said.

Li Bingjie snatched her fourth gold medal in the 800m freestyle in a time of 8:02.09 after renewing the world record over the 400m distance, Asian record in 1,500m and national record in 200m. She later finished third in 100m in 52.65, just behind Yang and Cheng.

"I felt tired and did not swim a perfect 800m as I had expected. But I was happy to see how much I have improved in less than three months," Li said.

Qin Haiyang also collected four golds from the competition as he swept titles in the men's 50m, 100m breaststroke with new national records, as well as in 200m breaststroke and 200m individual medley.

Two-time Olympic champion Zhang Yufei grabbed three titles in the women's 50m freestyle and 50m and 100m butterfly.

The Chinese National Championships (25m) was the qualification meet for the FINA 2022 World Championships (25m) to be held from Dec. 13-18 in Melbourne, Australia.