By Michael Church, OCA Media
Tokyo, Japan, September 22, 2026: China’s Peng Xuwei broke the Asian record to win gold in the women’s 200 metres backstroke at the Tokyo Aquatic Centre on Tuesday as Hong Kong China’s Siobhan Haughey successfully defended her title in the 100 metres freestyle.
Peng was in imperious form, finishing in 2 minutes 5.77 seconds to break compatriot Zhao Jing’s continental record, set at the Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games, by almost three-quarters of a second to leave her competition well adrift.
Sun Mingxia took the silver medal, 2.88 seconds behind, with Japan’s Rio Shirai securing the bronze medal.
“I feel that I was able to fully demonstrate everything I had built up during my training before the competition,” said Peng. “That's what makes me the happiest.
“I think one area where I improved in today's race was that I was able to truly enjoy the competition. I wasn't overly focused on the result, and I think that's why I was able to achieve a pretty good performance today.”
Haughey put in another dominant performance to complete the 100-200 freestyle double for the second Asian Games in a row with victory in the shorter event, touching in 52.45 seconds to finish ahead of Chinese duo Yu Yiting and Cheng Yujie.
“I think it's great, but before races I never really think too much about trying to defend my title or think about the external pressure,” Haughey said.
“I just really focus on how I want to execute the race and my race strategy. I think I'd still be happy even if I didn't win but I executed my race plan the way I wanted to.”
Yumeki Kojima, meanwhile, staged a stunning comeback in the second half of the men’s 400 metres individual medley to defeat Olympic silver medallist Tomoyuki Matsushita as the Japanese swimmers locked out the top two steps of the podium with China's Wang Shun touching in third.
Kojima trailed after the backstroke but drew level by the end of the breaststroke leg before pulling clear of his teammate in the freestyle to finish in 4 minutes 07.02 seconds in an Asian Games record, 2.62 seconds ahead of Matsushita.
Zhang Zhanshuo won gold for China in the men’s 1500 metres freestyle in 14 minutes 42.42 seconds with Japanese duo Kaito Tabuchi and Kazushi Imafuku taking silver and bronze respectively behind the 19-year-old.
Li Bingjie retained her Asian Games title in the women’s 400 metres in 4 minutes 2.71 seconds while Singapore’s Chin Hwee Gan finished second and Ichika Kajimoto claimed the bronze.
And Pan Zhanle anchored China to victory in the men’s 4 x 100 metres medley relay in the final event of the session, the world record holder keeping the Japanese at bay to win gold in 3 minutes 27.89 seconds with Korea finishing third.