World Championships, Day 4 Prelims (Men): China’s World Record holder Pan Zhanle Cruises Into 100 Freestyle Semifinals
Swimming latest world record holder, China’s Pan Zhanle has cruised through the preliminaries of the 100m freestyle in 47.82 as he sets his sights on becoming the first Chinese swimmer to win the blue ribband event in Doha.
The 19-year-old broke Romanian David Popovic‘s world mark leading off China’s gold medal-winning 4x100m freestyle relay on the opening night – setting the new world mark of 46.80.
And tonight he was in cruise mode, winning the first of the seeded heats in 47.82 with Italy’s Alessandro Miressi winning heat 11 in 47.94 and Hungarian Nandor Nemeth winning the final heat in 48.03. The fastest of the Americans is Matt King – fifth in 48.11.
Switzerland’s Tokyo Olympic bronze medallist Jeremy Desplanches (1:58.17) edged out Japan’s Daiya Seto (1:58.26) in a dominant first of the three seeded heats in the 200m individual medley as the 19 year-old chases his first world title.
Also from heat there were the next two qualifiers, American Carson Foster (1:58.71) and Seth’s Japanese team mate Riki Abe (1:59.48), with Canadian Finlay Knox who won heat five in the same time.
Britain’s Tokyo silver medallist Duncan Scott also qualified in the eighth fastest time of 1:59.91 and one to watch.
