RIZHAO, China. Oct. 14 -- Former world champion Fu Yuanhui claimed victory in her favorite 50 meters backstroke event on the second day of the Chinese National Autumn Swimming Championships here on Sunday.
Cheered on by the local fans, Fu stormed to a 27.60 seconds title in the women's 50m backstroke, beating Chen Jie 28.14 and Cheng Haihua 28.35.
"Rizhao means an important turning point in my life as I snatched my first ever national champion in the 100m backstroke seven years ago here. In fact, the backstroke was not my favorite stroke at that time. I started to change my event to this stroke after that," said Fu, who took a bronze medal in the 100m backstroke at Rio Olympic Games.
"I did not train after the Jakarta Asian Games since early September. I just took this meet as a training session and tried to enjoy the competition," Fu said.
In the women's 1500m freestyle, the 16-year-old Li Bingjie, the Asian record holder, failed to win a medal after she finished fourth in 16:26.78. Zhang Ke was the champion winning in 16:13.48.
"I felt tired after yesterday's 100m free with a time of 55.14. I need to save energy as I will also compete in 200, 400 free and 400m individual medley later at this meet," Li said.
Zhang Yufei topped the women's 50m butterfly in 26.70, while Zhou Min won the 200m individual medley 2:14.55.
In other men's events, Si Zhengzhong took the gold in 200m freestyle in a personal best 1:48.71; Zhao Xianjian touched home first in the 50m butterfly 23.81; Wang Yutian came from behind to win the 200m backstroke 1:59.15; and team Guangdong dominated the 4X100m freestyle.
A total of 666 swimmers competed in the Chinese National Swimming Championships while Olympic champion Sun Yang, world champion Xu Jiayu and women's 50m backstroke world record holder Liu Xiang were absent from the meet.