DOHA, Qatar — Chinese teenager Pan Zhanle broke the men’s 100m freestyle world record with a time of 46.80sec at the world championships in Doha.
Pan achieved the new mark leading off his team during the 4x100m freestyle relay to set up teammates Ji Xinjie, Zhang Zhanshuo and Wang Haoyu to seal gold for China in 3minutes 11:08seconds.
The 19-year-old shaved 0.06sec off the previous record of 46.86 achieved by Romanian David Popovici at the European championships in Rome in August 2022. “Actually, I wasn´t feeling in great form,” Pan said according to AP.
“I would´ve been happy with just getting on the podium. The USA, Great Britain and Italy were all quicker than us, and I just wanted to focus on doing my job well.
“I told myself, `Just swim hard.´ I was shocked when I saw the time, I wasn´t expecting to break the record now – I wanted to leave it for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.”
China won the relay in 3:11.08. Italy finished a second behind, with the United States rounding off the podium in 3:12.29.
Erika Fairweather became New Zealand´s first ever gold medalist at a World Aquatics Championships by winning the women´s 400 freestyle.
Fairweather, who claimed bronze behind Ariarne Titmus and Katie Ledecky at last year´s swimming worlds, won in a time of 3:59.44 seconds, 2.18 ahead of Li Bingjie of China.
Germany´s Isabel Gose was third, 2.95 behind Fairweather, who also broke her national record on her way to victory.
With open water, artistic swimming and diving events all completed in Doha, the focus shifted to the Aspire Dome and eight days of racing in the pool.
Titmus and Ledecky were just two of the sport´s biggest names skipping the worlds, with the Olympics starting in Paris in just over five months.
It is the first time in history a long course world championship has been held in the same year as an Olympics.
The men´s 400 free final was also without a defending champion but for a different reason as Ahmed Hafnaoui was surprisingly eliminated in the heats earlier in the day, finishing two seconds off the pace.
Kim Woo-min won in a personal best of 3:42.71 to claim South Korea´s first medal in the discipline since 2011.
He edged out 2022 champion Elijah Winnington of Australia by 0.15 and Germany´s Lukas Martens by 0.25.
In the 4×100 women´s free relay, the Netherlands took the gold in 3:36.61, with Australia earning the silver (3:36.93) and Canada the bronze (3:37.95).
Olympic champion Ahmed Hafnaoui of Tunisia was a surprise casualty in the heats, coming a lowly 17th overall and missing out on a place in the final.
New Zealand’s Erika Fairweather cruised to victory in the women’s 400m freestyle, touching the wall over two seconds clear of China’s Li Bingjie. Isabel Gose of Germany claimed the bronze.
Beijing to host 2029 world swimming championships. Beijing will host the 2029 World Aquatics Championships, becoming the second Chinese city to do so after Shanghai in 2011, World Aquatics announced.
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