Zetao Ning won 100m freestyle gold in 2017 national games of china

2015 World Champion Ning Zetao making his National Games mark in the pool. Kept off the Chinese roster for Budapest, Zetao has been relatively quiet since Rio. He made noise in his home nation tonight, however, cranking out the fastest 100m freestyle time of the field. After clocking a solid opener of 49.44 in this morning’s prelim, Zetao produced a quick 48.11 to hold the pole position by more than a second over the next-closest competitor, Yu Hexin and his time of 49.32.

Zetao’s 100m free mark of 48.11 tonight would have tied both GBR’s Duncan Scott and Brazil’s Marcelo Chierghini for 5th place in Budapest this summer. We’ll see what the national record holder has in store come the final tomorrow night.