The days of Sun Yang* are almost done in domestic waters: Zhang Zhanshuo, 18, today claimed victory over German ace and Olympic 400m free champion Lukas Märtens with a China-record rattling 1:44.53 in the 200m on day 1 of the four-day China Open in Shenzhen.

A career high by 0.33ec, Zhang's early 2026 World ranks topper was just 0.14sec shy of the 1:44.39 in which Sun set the Chinese record in 2017 a year before his second anti-doping WADA-Code infraction put him out of the sport for four years and three months.

Zhang also leapfrogged Olympic 100m champion Pan Zhanle (1:44.65, 2023) for the China all-time No2 spot in the 200m free as he took the race today ahead of Märtens 1:45.22 for second. Australia's William Petric took third in 1:46.14 in a final that saw four other Chinese swimmers in their early twenties clock personal best times:

Men's 200m Freestyle

• RESULTS IN FULL (Chinese names in Chinese on official results - all finals are listed in full in English below).

Splits:

• 24.43; 51.00 (26.57); 1:18.00 (27.00); 1:44.53 (26.53) - Zhang
• 24.65; 51.36 (26.71); 1:18.31 (26.95); 1:45.22 (26.91) - Märtens

Märtens' time qualified him, by a big margin (1:47.20 the cut), for the European Championships in Paris in August.

The 2oom final suggested Battles Royale in store when the 400m and 800m freestyle bring the top two together again at a four-day meet that is offering the biggest domestic meet appearance money and prize money as it combines an invitational with the National Spring Swimming Championships at the Shenzhen Universiade Sports Centre Aquatics Stadium.

Zhang’s 200m best had been a 1:44.86, clocked at the 15th National Games on November 12 last yea in the same pool in Shenzhen where the China Open is being hosted.  At the same meet last year, Zhang set a 3:42.99 World Junior record over 400m freestyle:

Asian record for Tang

Day 1 witnessed also witnessed an Asian record of 29.44 from Tang Qianting in the women's 50m breaststroke. The standard had stood to Tang at 29.51 since she claimed the World title at the poorly attended 'intercalated' championships in Doha in February 2024 at a time when Covid delays caused a run of global showcase events inn every year (not the traditional pattern of every two years) between 2022 and 2025. In Shenzhen today, Tang was the swim-away winner.

There was also a thumping best time from Yu Zidi, 13: 2:05.71 for victory ahead of two-times Olympic silver medals Regan Smith of the USA, on 2:06.28. Yu had a best time of 2:06.43, set when she placed fourth at the World Championships in Singapore last year as a swimmer too young to be eligible for World junior records yet, via a loophole, able to race at the senior World Championships.

Splits:

• 28.47; 1:00.87 (32.40); 1:33.40 (32.53); 2:05.71 (32.32) - Yu
• 28.63; 1:01.20 (32.57); 1:33.99 (32.79); 2:06.28 (32.29) - Smith

The win in the women's 100m freestyle final came down to 0.01sec: Siobhan Haughey, of Hong Kong, edged out Olympic 200m champion and World Championship silver medalist Mollie O'Callaghan, of Australia, 52.79 to 52.80. In third was American World short-course record holder and Olympic 200km breaststroke champion Kate Douglass (53.40), the short-course world record holder.

There were also victories for China's Li Bingjie in the 800m freestyle ahead of Australian World-titles silver medallist Lani Pallister, 8:16.27 to 8:19.09, with Yang Peiqi third in 8:19.53 as the hosts chased qualification times for summer internationals. Li and Yang shadowed Pallister throughout before Li rocketed into the lead with a 58.56sec closing 100.

Complete results of all finals in full and potted reports below...