Hangzhou, China, September 27, 2023: Zhang Yufei claimed her third and fourth gold medals of the 2022 Asian Games on Wednesday as the 25-year-old demolished her rivals to win the women’s 100 metre butterfly before helping China to claim the 4 x 100m mixed medley relay title in a new Asian record.
Zhang, who has targeted seven gold medals at the Hangzhou Games, won the 100m butterfly in 55.86 seconds, a remarkable 1.71 seconds ahead of second-placed Ai Soma from Japan with China’s Wang Yichun touching in third.
She then swam the butterfly leg as the Chinese team – including Xu Jiayu, Qin Haiyang and Yang Junxuan – finished in 3 minutes 37.73 seconds to break their own Asian record and miss the world record, currently held by Great Britain, by only 0.15 seconds. Japan were second with Republic of Korea third.
“55.86, I’m very glad with the result,” Zhang said after her gold in the 100m butterfly. “I still would say there is a gap between this and my set goal. This is within my expectation but I want to break the world record, I want to get closer to that goal.
“After the Tokyo Olympics at each event, at each competition I am looking forward to that opportunity and today I missed it again. Later on I will spare no effort to strike that goal.”
Zhang’s latest golds come after she had already won the 200m butterfly and was a member of China’s successful 4 x 100m freestyle relay. She is due to swim in the 50m butterfly and 50m freestyle as well as in the women’s 4 x 100 medley relay in the remaining two days.
Her first gold of the evening was the 16th for China in this year’s Asian Games and, by the end of the session, the hosts had increased their tally to 19 gold medals from the 27 on offer so far.
Wan Letien finished ahead of her Chinese team mate Wang Xueer to win the women’s 100m backstroke in 59.38 seconds with Republic of Korea’s Lee Eun-ji taking third. Yu Yiting added the 400m Individual Medley title to the 200m gold she won on Monday.
However, Yu needed all of the three-second gap she opened up in the first half of the race to take gold in 4:35.44 ahead of Japan’s Ageha Tanigawa, who closed to within 0.21 seconds of the Chinese swimmer by the finish. Mio Narita claimed bronze for Japan.
Hwang Sun-woo of the Republic of Korea set a new Asian Games record to win the men’s 200m freestyle as he saw off a late charge by Pan Zhanle to win the title in 1:44:40 with the Chinese swimmer finishing quickly to touch ahead of another Korean, Lee Ho-joon.
Katsuhiro Matsumoto timed his finish in the men’s 100m butterfly to perfection to pip Wang Changhao to gold, the Japanese winning the Asian Games title by 0.11 seconds from his Chinese opponent in 51.13 seconds. Kazakhstan’s Adilbek Mussin was third.
That was Japan’s second swimming gold of the Games, and Reona Aoki added the third in the women’s 100m breaststroke as she led home compatriot Satomi Suzuki, the defending champion, in 1:06:81. China’s Yang Chang was third as only 0.2 seconds covered the medal winners.