original title:
The first day of Melbourne Short Course World Championships: Zhang Yufei advanced to the 50m butterfly final
Xinhua News Agency, Melbourne, December 13 (Reporter Hao Yalin and Wang Qi) The 2022 World Short Course Swimming Championships kicked off in Melbourne, Australia on the 13th. China’s “Queen Butterfly” Zhang Yufei successfully advanced to the women’s 50m butterfly final. She and her teammates Yang Junxuan, Cheng Yujie, and Wu Qingfeng also won the sixth place in the women’s 4X100m freestyle relay with a time of 3:29.96.
In the competition that day, Zhang Yufei ranked second in the semi-final with a time of 24.79 seconds and successfully advanced to the final. The 24.75 she swam in the preliminaries also set a new personal best.
“For the 50-meter butterfly, it is true that I am not very dominant, but the championship must be my main goal, and I will definitely work towards the championship.” Zhang Yufei said in an interview with reporters after the game.
She said that after coming to Melbourne, she has been overcoming the impact of jet lag for the first two days, and she has almost adjusted to the game that day. In this competition, she set three small goals for herself at different levels, and she has to work hard to achieve them step by step-to further improve her performance, break the Asian record, and hit the gold medal.
“This year is a year of adjustment. I want to put aside my most stressful event and turn my attention to other events. Improving the short distance is ultimately for the 200-meter butterfly, and there is no conflict.” Zhang Yufei said.
Teenagers Wang Yichun and Wan Letian broke into the women’s 50m butterfly and 100m backstroke semi-finals respectively, but they failed to go further.
The host Australia team won the gold medal in the women’s 4X100m freestyle relay with a time of 3:25.43 and broke the world record with the outstanding performance of Emma McKean. The US team and the Canadian team won the second and third places respectively, and the Chinese team ranked sixth.
In other competitions on the first day, Australia’s Pallister won the gold medal in the women’s 400m freestyle with a time of 3:55.04. American players Douglas and Walsh won the third and second place respectively in the women’s 200-meter medley at the Tokyo Olympics.
South Africa’s Matthew Seth won the men’s 200m medley in 1:50.15, while American Foster and Canadian Knox won silver and bronze respectively.
In the men’s 4X100m freestyle relay, the Italian team won the gold medal with a time of 3:02.75, followed by the Australian team and the US team.