On Day 3 of the 2024 Chinese National Swimming Championships, Tang Qianting made history by breaking her own Asian Record in the women’s 100m breaststroke final. Clocking in at 1:04.39, Tang secured the gold medal and qualified for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
Tang, who is coached by Pierre Lafontaine, has had an impressive career thus far. Her incredible performance included an opening split of 29.64 and a closing split of 34.75, making it only the second time in her career that she managed to break the 1:05 barrier. Prior to this competition, Tang’s personal best was the Chinese national record of 1:05.27 set at this year’s World Championships in Doha. By surpassing the current world record of 1:04.13, Tang has now solidified her spot as the fourth-fastest swimmer in history.
In the same final, Yang Chang secured the silver medal by clocking in at 1:06.39, which earned her a spot under the World Aquatics Olympic Qualification Time of 1:06.79. Yu Jingyao took home the bronze with a time of 1:07.21. Despite their strong performances, neither Yang nor Yu managed to break Tang’s Asian Record or qualify for Paris under their own merits.
Despite her impressive accomplishments thus far, Tang continues to maintain her position as the top-ranked swimmer in China this season and is currently tied for third place worldwide with Katsumi Nakamura from Japan and Caeleb Dressel from America who have both achieved a time under 1:05 this year as well..
