Hangzhou, China, September 24, 2023: Olympic champion Zhang Yufei led a Chinese gold medal sweep on the opening night of the Asian Games swimming competition at the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Centre Aquatic Sports Arena on Sunday with victory in the women's 200m butterfly.
Zhang blitzed the field to win her first title in a quest for seven Asian Games gold medals while 19-year-old Pan Zhanle claimed victory in the men's 100m freestyle, touching just 0.11 seconds adrift of David Popovic’s world record in 46.97 seconds.
Wang Shun broke the Asian record to win the men’s 200m Individual Medley while there were gold medals for Li Bingjie in the women’s 1500m freestyle, Tang Qianting in the women’s 50m breaststroke, Xu Jiayu in the men’s 100m backstroke and the women’s 4 x 100m freestyle relay.
“I feel very happy with this result,” said Zhang Yufei. “This is the first gold medal. I’m under great pressure and I was really worried I wouldn’t have a very good start for my team mates. There was a lot of pressure in my mind.
“I was really quite threatened but when I started I went at full strength and the result was quite a surprise, but a good surprise.”
Zhang Yufei dominated the evening’s first event, opening up a second’s lead by the end of the first 50 metres and stretching her advantage down the second length to hold a 1.59 second gap to compatriot Yu Liyan.
The distance between the lead duo extended further over the second half of the race with Zhang touching in 2 minutes 5.57 seconds, almost three seconds ahead of Yu Liyan and eclipsing the Asian Games record time set by Jiao Liuyang in Guangzhou in 2010.
Wang Shun set a new Asian record in the 200 Individual Medley, leading from start to finish to demolish the opposition in a time of 1 minute 54.62 seconds, lowering the continental mark by 0.72 seconds set by Kosuke Hagino in Incheon in 2014.
The Chinese also won silver as Qin Haiyang reeled in Japan’s Daiya Seto in his specialist breaststroke leg before holding off the former world champion down the freestyle leg to pip the Japanese to the silver.
Pan Zhanle fell agonisingly short of Popovic’s world record with a dominant swim in the 100m freestyle, holding a significant advantage at the turn before beating compatriot Wang Haoyu and Hwang Sun-woo from Republic of Korea by more than a second.
“I wanted to fight for the world record, so personally I don’t feel I’ve done well enough,” he said. “My next goal is the world record and to be champion, to win the gold medal at Paris in 2024.”
Tang held off a fast-finishing Satomi Suzuki in the women’s 50m breaststroke with Hong Kong China’s Siobhan Haughey in third. Xu Jiayu beat Japanese veteran Ryosuke Irie to win the men’s 100m backstroke.
China completed the clean sweep with a comfortable win in the women’s 4 x 100m freestyle relay, with Japan second and Hong Kong, China claiming bronze.
Zhang Yufei leads Chinese dominance in swimming's opening night
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