Chinese teenager Pan Zhanle broke the 100m freestyle world record as he led his team to gold in the men’s 4x100m relay on the opening night of pool action at the World Aquatics Championships in Doha.
Swimming the opening leg, the 19-year-old set a stunning 50m split time of 22.26 and went on with it to stop the clock at 46.8 seconds.
The time shaved six-hundredths off the old mark set by Romanian David Popovici at the European Championships only last August. The record had stood for well over a decade before that.
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In setting the new benchmark, Zhanle established himself as one to beat come Paris 2024.
“Actually, I wasn’t feeling in great form,” Pan said.
“I would’ve been happy with just getting on the podium. This morning (in heats), the US, 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 medallist at a World Aquatics Championships by winning the women’s 400m freestyle.
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Fairweather, who claimed bronze behind Aussie Ariarne Titmus and American gun 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 for the first of 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 championships has been held in the same year as an Olympics.
The men’s 400m freestyle final was also without a defending champion but for a different reason – 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, Aussie Elijah Winnington by 0.15 and Germany’s Lukas Märtens 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).
In men’s water polo Sunday, Italy edged the United States 13-12 to reach the quarterfinals. Croatia, France and Montenegro also advanced.
Action resumes on Monday night, live and free on 9now.