Hangzhou, China, September 26, 2023: Siobhan Haughey of Hong Kong, China put on a commanding display to win the Asian Games women’s 100 metres freestyle gold on Tuesday, setting a new Asian record at the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Centre Aquatic Sports Arena to claim her second title in two days.
The 2020 Olympic Games silver medallist touched in 52.17 seconds, one-tenth of a second under her own mark, to defeat China’s Yang Junxuan by almost a second and add the 100m title to the 200m freestyle gold she won on Monday. Cheng Yujie of China was third.
“I’m really happy that I could do a best time here, I couldn’t do a best time since Tokyo,” said Haughey. “I knew I had the ability to go faster and I’m really happy that I could do it here at the Asian Games and set a new Asian record.
“It just proves that I’m not at my peak yet and hopefully I can keep going and keep swimming faster.”
China’s men were in devastating form in the 4 x 100m medley relay as Xu Jiayu, Qin Haiyang, Wang Changhao and Pan Zhanle demolished the Asian record to win gold and leave the rest of the field in their wake when they touched in 3 minutes 27.01 seconds.
Republic of Korea were second and Japan third behind a Chinese squad that was only 0.23 seconds outside the world record set by the United States in 2021, ensuring the hosts were celebrating once again at the end of the session.
China have won 15 out of the 20 events completed so far, although they had to wait until the third race of Tuesday’s session to pick up their first gold of the evening when Peng Xuwei cruised to victory in the women’s 200m backstroke.
The 20-year-old, who was third at the world championships in Fukuoka in July, led from start to finish in 2:07.28, 1.42 seconds ahead of compatriot Liu Yaxin with Lee Eun-ji of Republic of Korea claiming the bronze medal.
“I am very happy to win the gold medal in the Asian Games in Hangzhou,” said Peng. “But today's results are not very satisfactory. It's just normal, not the best, and there's still a lot of room for improvement.”
Fei Liwei won the men’s 1500m freestyle in 14:55.47 despite losing his cap as he exited the penultimate turn, the Chinese swimmer shrugging off the distraction to increase his lead over second-placed Kim Woo-min. Japan’s Shogo Takeda was third.
Li Bingjie claimed her third gold medal in Hangzhou with victory in the women’s 400m, setting a new Asian Games record of 4:01.96 to finish ahead of Chinese team mate Ma Yonghui. Waka Kobori took bronze.
Li had previously won the women’s 1500m freestyle and was a member of China’s gold medal-winning 4 x 100m freestyle relay team. In addition she took silver behind Haughey in the 200m freestyle on Monday.
Tomoru Honda delivered Japan’s first gold of the meet in the men’s 400m Individual Medley as he reeled in compatriot Daiya Seto to win the title in 4:11.40.
Seto, the three-time world champion at this distance, led by a body length out of the last turn but the 2018 Asian Games champion faded down the final 50m and his compatriot eventually won by 1.48 seconds. China’s Wang Shun completed the podium.