16-year-old Yang Junxuan shock winner in women's 200m freestyle

TAIYUAN - 16-year-old rookie Yang Junxuan from Chinese Navy collected her second gold medal in the women's 200 meters freestyle by beating a group of veterans, and added her third title in the mixed 4X100m medley relay at the Chinese National Swimming Championships on Monday.

Yang, who snatched the victory in the 100m freestyle with a time of 54.26 seconds two days ago, won the 200m battle by clocking in one minute 56.79 seconds, beating mid-long distance expert Li Bingjie of Hebei into second 1:57.08 and Zhang Yuhan of Chinese Army 1:57.26.

"I just wanted to score my personal best and earn the ticket to compete in the Asian Games. I was satisfied with my performance so far. I swam in my pace," said Yang, who later joined the winning team in the mixed 4X100m medley relay in 3:50.21.

Team Zhejiang bagged two golds as Li Zhuhao won the men's 100m butterfly in 51.77 while Wang Shun met no challenges in the men's 400m individual medley 4:14.02.

"I trained very well but after 200m freestyle, 200m medley and relay, I felt tired as I swam slower than expected in the breaststroke," Wang said.

Yan Zibei of Hubei was the only swimmer to break the one-minute barrier in the men's 100m breaststroke. He clocked 59.66 for the title while 200m champion Qin Haiyang from Chinese Navy finished second in 1:00.20.

Chen Jie of Hubei topped the women's 100m backstroke in 59.66 and Wang Xueer of Guangdong 59.89. Veteran Fu Yuanhui shared the bronze medal with 200m backstroke champion Peng Xuwei of Hubei in 1:00.05.

Fu, who suffered from shoulder injury, said she was happy with her gold medal in the 50m backstroke. "A gold medal meant that I could go to Asian Games in this event. It was an unexpected surprise for me since my shoulder injury destroyed my training," said the 50m world champion in 2015 and runner-up in 2017.

Team Guangdong won the men's 4X100m freestyle in 3:20.29 and Yu Liyan took the victory in women's 200m butterfly 2:10.06.