Fu Yuanhui storms to season's best in women's 50m backstroke

TAIYUAN - Former world champion Fu Yuanhui overcame her left shoulder injury to blast a world No. 1 performance in the women's 50m backstroke in the Chinese National Swimming Championships while Sun Yang collected his third title in 400m freestyle here on Sunday.

As the most decorated star swimmer in China, Fu, who failed to enter the 200m backstroke final on Friday, rebuilt her reputation and confidence in the 50m back with a time of 27.16 seconds, 0.1 shy of the world record.

Liu Xiang, the 2015 bronze medalist in Kazan, finished second in a personal-best 27.40 and Chen Jie third 27.60.

With two long muscle bandages on her left shoulder, Fu scratched her arms before the final. When she touched the wall she was shocked with the timing.

"I thought I would not stand on the podium this time since I was not in my best shape. But the result and full-house local fans boosted my confidence. I was relieved now that I could go to fight at the Asian Games to be held in August," Fu smiled.

Olympic champion Sun Yang was the King of the pool as he enjoyed his one-man show and took his third title in the men's 400m freestyle in 3:44.29, No. 2 on the current FINA world rankings. Ji Xinjie of Shangdong and Wang Yifan of Zhejiang came to second and third, respectively.

"I was satisfied with this time since it was on the 800m plateau. I just returned to training for two months and I am confident that I can achieve better results when I come back to the plain land," said Sun, who wrapped up victories in the 200m and 800m freestyles.

Qin Haiyang of Chinese Navy led the men's 200m breaststroke in 2:09.40 while Yu Hexin of Guangdong sprinted personal-best 22.14 to lift the men's 50m freestyle title.

Zhou Min of Shanghai won the women's 400m individual medley 4:43.25, Zhang Yufei of Jiangsu claimed victory in the women's 100m butterfly 58.78. Team Hebei dominated the women's 4X200m freestyle relay in 8:00.73.