With or without Sun Yang, Chinese swimmers' strong performances at last week's Olympic trials showed they remain a force to be reckoned with in Tokyo.

Three-time Olympic champion Sun's participation at this summer's Games hinges on the outcome of his forthcoming retrial for an alleged doping violation. However, amid rumors that Sun might make a shock appearance at the trials in Qingdao, Shandong province, a younger generation of medal hopefuls thrived in his absence, giving Team China a timely morale boost for Tokyo.

Zhang Yufei, 23, was particularly impressive, clocking the world's fastest times this year in the 100m and 200m butterfly en route to collecting five golds.

Zhang's winning 200m time of 2 min 5.44 sec was a new personal best, the fastest recorded since the 2017 world championships final, and would have seen her top the podium at the 2019 worlds.

The 55.73 she clocked to win the 100m was just a quarter of a second shy of the world record, held by Sweden's reigning Olympic champion Sarah Sjostrom.

With no opponents having cracked the 2:06 mark in the 200m this season, Zhang has emerged as one of the gold-medal favorites for Tokyo in an event in which China boasts a rich history. Liu Zige and Jiao Liuyang claimed 200m golds at the 2008 Beijing and 2012 London Games.

Zhang, however, stressed that her best is yet to come.

"The result today was OK. I am actually not quite satisfied with it," Zhang, who finished sixth in the event at her Olympic debut in 2016, said after the 200m butterfly final in Qingdao.

"I am not 100 percent physically. I am a bit tired after competing in so many events at the meet ... everything now is about preparation and only the Olympics matter."

With four-time world champion Sjostrom recovering from an elbow injury, the 100m butterfly is now considered a wide-open race in Tokyo, with Australian sprinter Emma McKeon and rising American star Claire Curzan also within reach of the podium.

Still, Zhang is making no secret of her goal to bring home both golds, having swum 55.62 in the 100m－0.11 quicker than her Qingdao result－at a domestic meet in September last year.

"I went for the world record in the heats," Zhang said after the 100m preliminaries. "Although I didn't do it, knowing that I've got what it takes to be competitive at the highest level will help me stay composed at the Olympics."

Zhang's standout performance in Qingdao drew attention away from a rumored return of Sun, who is officially eligible to compete after having an eight-year ban by the Court of Arbitration of Sport (CAS) for an alleged doping violation overturned by a Swiss court in December.

Sun was suspended by the Lausanne-based CAS in February 2020 for refusing to cooperate during a random out-of-competition drug test in September 2018. That ruling was set aside by the Swiss Federal Tribunal following a successful appeal by Sun's legal team, which questioned the neutrality of Franco Frattini, chairman of the CAS panel that heard the case and issued the ban.

With his case to be heard again by a different CAS panel from May 24-28, Sun is expected to find out before the Tokyo Games open on July 23 whether he can compete at his fourth Olympics or instead retire in disgrace.

Sun won the men's 400m and 1,500m freestyle at the 2012 Olympics before adding a third gold in the 200m at Rio 2016 to become China's most celebrated swimmer until the doping case derailed his career.

New breed

As well as Zhang, a number of other young prospects, including women's freestyler Yang Junxuan and individual medley prodigy Yu Yiting, have stepped up to boost China's challenge in the pool.

Winning the 200m free in a blistering 1:54.57, Yang broke her own Asian record by 0.13 sec in Qingdao to move up to second in this season's world standings behind five-time Olympic champion Katie Ledecky of the United States (0.17 faster).

Yang attributed her breakthrough to a recent high-altitude training program in Southwest China's Yunnan province.

"My fitness, strength conditioning and speed have all improved," said the 19-year-old Shandong native.

The versatile Yu, who at 15 remains far from her physical prime, dominated the women's 200m IM, winning the final in 2:09.64 to set a new world junior record and trigger comparisons to her idol Ye Shiwen, who won both the 200m and 400m IM at 16 at the 2012 London Games.

"I didn't even think about the Olympics until the one-year delay gave me a chance," said Yu, who hails from Zhejiang province and has qualified for Tokyo in both IM events.

On the men's side, Sun's uncertain future has left backstroke star Xu Jiayu as China's sole gold-medal hope in Tokyo. The two-time 100m world champion (2017-19) is feeling the pressure of competing in multiple individual and relay events.

"I think the biggest takeaway from Qingdao is that I pulled through after competing in so many events. I am holding up well. It says a lot about my improvement physically," said Xu after winning the 100m and 200m back in Qingdao.

A sliver medalist in the 100m at the 2016 Olympics, Xu will face stiff competition from Russia's Evgeny Rylov, who tops both standings this season, and longtime rival Mitch Larkin of Australia if he is to move up a step on the podium in Tokyo.

In the mixed 4x100m medley relay, a new event added to the Tokyo Games program, a team comprised of Xu, Zhang, Yang and Yan Zibei (men's breaststroke) had their chemistry further tested in Qingdao.

The same team set the event's world record (3:38.41) at the national championships in October 2020, bettering the previous mark held by American swimmers by 0.15 sec.

The Tokyo Olympics' nine-day swimming program will be staged from July 24-Aug 1.

A total of 33 Chinese swimmers have qualified for the Games. Each country or region is permitted to send a maximum of 56 swimmers, two for each of the 14 events on both the men's and women's sides. Next month's summer championships will be the final trial for Chinese swimmers to compete for the remaining spots.

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