By Michael Church, OCA Media
Tokyo, Japan, September 24, 2026: Japan’s Shin Ohashi smashed the world record to win the men’s 200 metres breaststroke gold at the Asian Games Aichi-Nagoya 2026 on Thursday as the 17-year-old completed a remarkable double at the Tokyo Aquatic Centre.
Ohashi’s time of 2 minutes 4.83 seconds saw him carve 0.65 seconds off the record held by Qin Haiyang, which had been set when the Chinese swimmer won gold at the world championships in Fukuoka over three years ago.
“My target had always been to break the world record, and I’m so happy to have done it,” said Ohashi, who finished almost four seconds ahead of second-placed Denis Petrashov from Kyrgyzstan with Korea’s Cho Sung-jae taking third.
“A lot happened before this competition but a lot of people helped me get to this point and I am very grateful to them.
“My next goal is to win gold at next year’s world championships and then go on to win gold at the Olympics. This record is the one I am happiest with this year. I don’t want to be satisfied and I want to feel these emotions again.”
Ohashi, who shared the gold medal in the 100 metres on Monday with China’s Dong Zhihao, dominated the race from the start, continuing to pull away from the rest of the field as he surged down the final length and into the record books.
The teenager’s record-breaking swim headlined an evening that saw Japan also win gold in the women’s 200 metres breaststroke as Kotomi Kato earned a narrow victory over Korea’s Park Sie-un, finishing 0.12 seconds ahead in 2 minutes 22.57 seconds. Zhu Leiju was third.
Mikhail Arkhangelskiy secured Bahrain’s first-ever swimming medal when he equalled his own Asian record to beat Japan’s Shoon Mitsunaga into second place in the men’s 50 metres butterfly having finished the one-length sprint in 22.91 seconds.
“I’m really, really happy,” said Arkhangelskiy. “I was tired at the end of this meet. When I arrived I was ready, facing the stress of my first big competition. My coach was really proud of me and I found the energy and the confidence to win.
“I’m really proud of my country, the first medal in swimming and the first gold medal at the Asian Games for this edition.”
Chinese freestyler Zhang Zhanshuo continued his dominance of the distance events to win his third individual gold medal with victory in the men’s 800 metres freestyle.
The 19-year-old, winner of the 200 metres and 1500 metres events already, cemented his success with a stunning final turn that left Kaito Tabuchi from Japan and Korea’s Kim Jun-woo well adrift as he finished in an Asian Games record of 7 minutes 42.49.
Zhang then backed that up with another gold medal win – his sixth in total – as a member of China’s 4 x 100 metres freestyle team as the quartet set a new Asian record of 3 minutes 10.60 seconds to beat Korea and Japan into second and third respectively.
And China completed the session on the top step of the podium in the women’s 4 x 200 metres freestyle relay by finishing more than 10 seconds clear of second-placed Japan with Korea taking bronze.