Finding the flow for Tokyo

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.