2024 CHINESE NATIONAL SUMMER CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Sunday, August 25th – Wednesday, August 28th
- Hefei, China
- LCM (50m)
- Days 1 & 2 Recap
- Results – via Asian media
During day 1 of the 2024 Chinese National Summer Championships, 11-year-old Yu Zidi ripped a new lifetime best of 2:09.86 to win the women’s 200m fly event.
Entering this competition, Yu’s personal best stood at the 2:14.04, a mark clocked just this past April at the nation’s Olympic Trials.
We reported how Yu’s time 2:09.86 is over 5 seconds faster than the fastest-ever American in the girls’ 11-12 age group. Cassidy Bayer owns the U.S. national age group record with the 2:15.02 put on the books in 2012.
Watching Yu’s race, the youngster split 28.53/33.59 (1:02.12)/33.65 (1:35.77)/34.09(2:09.86) en route to registering the monster performance. She breathed every stroke for the majority of the race and led the field wire-to-wire.
Yu tried the women’s 200m IM on for size on day 2 of the competition and doubled up with another gold medal-worthy performance.
Yu registered an effort of 2:12.57, a result which rendered the budding star just outside the top 15 Chinese performers in history.
Once again, Yu’s time would blow the current U.S. national age record to bits, coming in a full 6 seconds faster than Teagan O’Dell’s 2:18.69 from 2019.