The 31-year-old produced the swim on the lead-off leg of the Mixed 4x50m Medley Relay, and cut more than half a second off his previous best of 22.70.

His time is 0.06 faster than the 22.09 set by Pieter Coetze of South Africa at the second stop of the World Aquatics Swimming World Cup in Tashkent earlier this month. Coetze’s swim had improved Kliment Kolesnikov’s 22.11 from 2022.

Xu’s team went on to win the Mixed 4x50m Medley Relay in 1:37.51, with Sun Zheyang (26.16), Yan Tiaoshan (25.55) and Lyu Yue (23.77) completing the effort.

The result continues a strong year for Xu, who won gold in the 50m and 100m Backstroke, 4x100m Medley Relay and 4x100m Mixed Medley Relay at the Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya.

The World Aquatics Swimming Championships (25m) takes place at the Water Cube in Beijing from 1 to 6 December, the same venue as this week’s National Championships.

The last edition, in Budapest in 2024, produced 30 World Records – the most ever at a World Swimming Championships (25m).

This year’s World Aquatics Swimming World Cup featured further record-breaking performances. In Baku, Egor Kornev equalled the Men’s 100m Freestyle World Record, while in Tashkent, Coetze broke the 50m Backstroke World Record, although it only stood for 15 days before Xu’s swim.

With the records continuing, the Water Cube looks set for a memorable week at the Championships in December.