Hangzhou, China, September 29, 2023: Zhang Yufei equalled the record for the most gold medals at a single Asian Games when the Chinese swimmer claimed victory in the women’s 50m butterfly in Friday’s final session at Hangzhou Olympic Sports Centre Aquatic Sports Arena.
Zhang won in an Asian Games record of 25.10 seconds to match the achievement of Rikako Ikee, who won six golds in 2018, with the Japanese 23-year-old making an emotional return to the podium after battling leukemia to take third behind Zhang and Yu Yiting.
Zhang and Ikee, the 2018 Asian Games MVP, were both in tears as they embraced after the victory ceremony, as the Chinese swimmer had provided words of support and encouragement to Ikee as she battled the disease in 2019 and beyond.
Talking about her medal haul, crowd favourite Zhang said: “This was within my expectations. But I am quite happy about the results. From the National Games to the Asian Games, even my coach said he has never seen me this disciplined before.”
Zhang added the 50m butterfly title to the 100m and 200m golds in the same discipline, having also won the 50m freestyle and 4 x 100 freestyle and 4 x 100 mixed medley relay golds.
However, Zhang was denied a record-breaking seventh gold when China’s team was disqualified in the heats of the 4 x 100 medley relay, leaving Japan to win the title ahead of the Republic of Korea and Hong Kong, China.
Li Bingjie, meanwhile, won her fifth gold of the meet – and sixth medal in total – with a comfortable victory in the women’s 800m freestyle, completing the 16 lengths in 8 minutes 20.01 seconds, 8.77 seconds clear of Japan’s Waka Kobori with Yang Peiqi in third.
Li’s swim came after title wins in the 400m and 1500m freestyle plus the 4 x 100m and 4 x 200m freestyle relays. She also won silver in the 200m freestyle.
“This is my last competition at the Asian Games and I won gold,” said Li. “This is a gift to everyone and for China because we are approaching the national day holiday.”
Qin Haiyang completed a clean sweep of the breaststroke titles with victory over team mate Sun Jiajun and Choi Dong-yeol of Republic of Korea in the men’s 50m, touching in a time of 26.35 seconds to add to the golds he won in the 100m and 200m earlier in the week.
“This was a chance for me to try some new things and prepare for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games,” said Qin. “I was confident of getting the gold, so it was a chance for me to try new things.”
And with Xu Jiayu winning the men’s 200m backstroke from Korean swimmer Lee Jun-ho and Hidekazu Takehara of Japan in 1:55.37, China ended their efforts in the pool with an astonishing 28 golds, 21 silver and nine bronze from 41 events.
Kim Min-woo prevented Pan Zhanle from claiming his second individual gold by winning the men’s 400m freestyle in 3:44.36, 4.45 seconds ahead of the Chinese swimmer with Vietnam’s Nguyen Huy Hoang third. Kim’s win was the Republic of Korea’s sixth gold of the meet.
Japan’s Tomoru Honda broke the Asian Games record to win the men’s 200m butterfly in 1:53.15 to secure his nation’s fourth gold medal of the meet, finishing well clear of Chinese Taipei’s Wang Kuan-hung and Chen Juner from China.
The Japanese closed out proceedings with victory in the women’s 4 x 100m medley relay, winning in 3:57.67 after China missed the final when Wang Xueer’s false start on the opening backstroke leg saw her team disqualified in the heats.