Pan Zhanle Delivers 46.97 100 Free At Asian Games: Wang Shun Goes Third All-Time In 200IM
Pan Zhanle and Wang Shun both joined exalted company after they rattled the all-time rankings in the 100 free and 200IM respectively in day one finals at the Asian Games in Hangzhou, China.
Pan went fifth all-time in the 100 free in 46.97, only 0.11 outside David Popovici’s 46.86 world record set at the 2022 European Championships in Rome.
Only Popovici, Cesar Cielo, Alain Bernard and Caeleb Dressel eclipse the Chinese athlete who split 22.45/24.52 en-route to the fifth-swiftest performance in history.
It sliced 0.46 from his own Asian record of 47.43 set at the World Championships in Fukuoka, Japan, in July where he missed the podium by one place and 0.01.
Not that the 19-year-old was particularly impressed by his efforts but instead rued missing Popovici’s global standard.
All-Time Rankings
46.86: David Popovici, 2022 European Championships
46.91: Cesar Cielo, 2009 World Championships
46.94: Alain Bernard, 2009 French Championships
46.96: Caeleb Dressel, 2019 World Championships
46.97: Pan Zhanle, 2022 Asian Games
Pan led home a Chinese one-two – one of four on an evening of dominance by the hosts – ahead of Wang Haoyu (48.02) and Hwang Sunwoo of South Korea who went 48.02.
Wang Shun: Photo Courtesy: Becca Wyant
It followed Wang’s eye-watering 1:54.62 in the 200IM where he too lowered his own Asian record of 1:55.00 en-route to the Olympic title in Tokyo.
Qin Haiyang – he of the historic breaststroke treble in Fukuoka – headed the prelims but Wang executed a superb race, leading throughout and finishing 2.79 ahead of his China teammate.
Wang splits: 24.53/53.38/1:26.94/1:54.62
Qin splits: 25.27/55.95/1:29.21/1:57.41
It saw him leapfrog Leon Marchand into third all-time behind only Ryan Lochte (1:54.00) and Michael Phelps (1:54.16).
Daiya Seto was third in 1:58.35.
Zhang Starts The Chinese Gold Rush
China won every gold medal available on day one as they took home an overall medal haul of 11.
Zhang Yufei started the night off with gold in the 200 fly in a Games record of 2:05.57 ahead of teammate Yu Liyan (2:08.31) and Hiroko Makino (2:09.22).
Zhang then returned for the final event of the night when she claimed a second gold and Games record, anchoring the Chinese women’s 4×1 free to victory in 3:33.96.
Zhang Yufei: Photo Courtesy: Andrea Masini / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto
Japan – with Rikako Ikee – were second in 3:38.48 with a 51.92 split by Olympic silver medallist Siobhan Haughey propelling Hong Kong to bronze in 3:39.10.
That was a second medal of the night for Haughey who’d claimed bronze in the 50 breaststroke in 30.36 as she lowered her national record set in prelims.
Tang Qianting won in 29.96 – outside her Asian record set in heats – with Satomi Suzuki of Japan claiming her fourth straight medal in the event in silver in 30.14.
Xu Jiayu went 52.23 – a Games record – to win the 100 back ahead of Ryosuke Irie (53.46) and Lee Juho (53.54).
Li Bingjie dominated the 1500 free in 15:51.18 ahead of teammate Gao Weizhong (16:05.73) and Japan’s Yukimi Moriyama (16:17.78).
Excellent performance! jiayou!