China swim star Qin Haiyang back in Olympic gold form, eyes World Championships glory
The 25-year-old hits gold-medal speed in 100m breaststroke, says he’s getting back to his best ahead of defence of three titles in Singapore
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.
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.
“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].”