Chinese swimmers showcased their strength in-depth with record-breaking performances by veterans and rising stars at the national championships in Beijing.

As of Tuesday, swimmers had broken one world, six Asian and multiple national records.

Zhang Yufei and Zhang Zhanshuo set Asian short-course records in the women’s 100m butterfly and men’s 800m freestyle, clocking 54.87 seconds and 7 minutes 28.61 seconds respectively to claim gold.

The national event is the official selection trial for December’s World Aquatics Swimming Championships in China.

Zhang Yufei’s time came just after American star Gretchen Walsh set a US Open record of 53.04 seconds in the same event earlier this month, while Zhang Zhanshuo’s effort followed Australian swimmer Sam Short’s 7:25.55 performance at last month’s Australian Short Course Championships.

The victory on Tuesday marked Zhang Yufei’s fourth gold medal of the event, following her wins in the women’s 50m butterfly, the women’s 100m individual medley and leading Jiangsu to a national record of 1:30.14 in the mixed 4x50m freestyle relay alongside Zhao Jiayue, Zhang Xumeng and Yang Wenwen.

Commenting on the tumbling of records, Zhang Yufei highlighted the team’s overall progress and the physical demands of short-course racing.

“Our overall level has risen, so Asian records keep getting broken at national championships,” she said.

Zhang Zhanshuo’s win secured his third gold of the championships, adding to earlier titles in the men’s 1,500m freestyle and 400m freestyle.

In the mixed 4x100m medley relay final, Zhejiang’s quartet of Xu Jiayu, Xie Yichen, Lv Yue and Liu Yaxin captured gold in an Asian record time of 3:36.00, led by Xu’s 48.54-second backstroke leg that lowered his own Asian 100m short-course record set on Saturday.

Jiangsu finished second in 3:38.79, while Shandong took bronze in 3:38.87. The top three teams all broke the previous national record mark.

In the mixed 4x50m medley relay victory on Saturday, Xu clocked a time of 22.03 seconds in the opening men’s backstroke leadoff leg, breaking the world record of 22.09 seconds set by South Africa’s Pieter Coetze.

On Monday evening, 15-year-old Hu Qianhe from Hunan produced an unexpected upset in the women’s 200m breaststroke final, powering over the final 50 metres to win in 2:18.39.

Hu held off Shanghai’s Tang Qianting (2:18.93) and Zhu Leiju (2:19.36) to break Qi Hui’s 25-year-old national youth record of 2:19.25 by nearly a second and beat the world championships qualification time by three seconds, falling just 0.20 seconds short of Sun Ye’s 16-year-old national record.

Competing in her first-ever short-course event after practising for just a month, the Changsha-born swimmer secured her spot for December’s world championships in Beijing.

Earlier, 17-year-old Beijing swimmer Sun Mingxia also impressed by setting a national short-course youth record of 56.96 seconds in the women’s 100m backstroke semi-finals.

The championships finish on Wednesday, with heats and finals in the men’s and women’s 200m freestyle, 200m backstroke and 4x100m medley relays, alongside finals in the men’s and women’s 50m freestyle and 50m breaststroke.

Zhang Zhanshuo and Olympic champion Pan Zhanle were scheduled to feature in the men’s 200m freestyle heats, while Zhang Yufei and Wang Changhao will headline the women’s and men’s 50m freestyle finals.