Tokyo, Japan, September 21, 2026: Korea’s Kim Young-beom set a new Asian Games record in the men’s 50 metres freestyle to qualify fastest for Monday’s final as Chinese swimmers continued to dominate at the Tokyo Aquatic Centre.
Xu Jiayu, Wan Letian, Li Jiaping and Yu Yiting all recorded the quickest heat times in their respective events but it was Kim who lit up the scoreboard in the morning session in the single-lap event when he touched the wall in 21.71 seconds.
“I think my racing is beautiful,” said Kim, who set the new mark after narrowly losing out to Pan Zhanle in the 100 metres on Sunday.
“I’m very tired but I was relaxing in my swimming. It’s really exciting for me, there is no other word to explain it. If I do the same race tonight I think I can break the record again.”
Kim’s time shaved one-hundredth of a second off the mark set by compatriot Ji Yu-chan when he won gold in Hangzhou three years ago and the performance sees the 20-year-old sit 0.32 seconds ahead of second-ranked Shuya Matsumoto from Japan.
Hometown hope Shin Ohashi registered the fastest qualifying time for the men’s 100 metres breaststroke, the 17-year-old winning his heat in a time of 59.38 seconds. That was 0.15 seconds ahead of Korea’s Choi Dong-yeol with champion Qin Haiyang in third.
Xu Jiayi backed up his gold medal swim in the men’s 100 metre backstroke on Sunday with the fastest time in the 50 metre backstroke heats while Wan Letian was quickest in the women’s event, finishing 0.25 seconds clear of Kim Seung-won from Korea.
Yu Yiting touched more than half-a-second ahead of 13-year-old 200 metre butterfly champion Yu Zidi to top the timing charts in the women’s 200 metre individual medley, and Li Jiaping shaded defending champion Siobhan Haughey in the women’s 200 metres freestyle.
Haughey, who won the 100 metres and 200 metres freestyle events three years ago, touched the wall in 1 minute 58.60 seconds to win her heat and qualify just 0.10 seconds behind Li Jiaping.
“For heats my goal is to make the finals,” said the Hong Kong China swimmer and four-times Olympic medallist. “I knew I wouldn’t have to go too fast this morning, so I just did my swim. Hopefully I’ll have a good recovery and be back in the afternoon for a much faster swim.”