By Michael Church, OCA Media
Tokyo, Japan, September 25, 2026: Zhang Zhanshuo kept his bid for a seventh gold medal at the Asian Games Aichi-Nagoya 2026 on track with a controlled swim to qualify for the final of the men’s 400 metres freestyle on Friday.
The 19-year-old Chinese swimmer, who has already won the 200, 800 and 1500 metres freestyle as well as gold medals in three relays, cruised through the heats to qualify in fourth place.
Uzbekistan’s Ilya Sibirtsev set the fastest time in 3 minutes 50.32 seconds with Kazushi Imafuku of Japan second and Nguyen Huy Hoang from Vietnam in third.
Zhang Zhanshuo trailed Tatsuya Murasa by more than a body length at the halfway point of his heat but steadily reeled in the Japanese swimmer before putting on a final burst of speed in the last five metres to win his preliminary.
“The morning session was relatively relaxed,” said Zhang. “It was all about preparing for tonight, to save some energy for the final. Tonight I'll give it my all.
“Before anything is confirmed, I don't want to put pressure on myself, just focus on giving it my all and swimming well tonight.”
Zhang Zhanshuo’s current haul of six gold medals has drawn him level with compatriot Zhang Yufei and Japan’s Rikako Ikee as the most successful swimmers in recent memory at the Asian Games.
Ikee completed her six wins at the Asian Games in Jakarta in 2018 while Zhang Yufei emulated that feat in Hangzhou five years later.
Fittingly, the pair will go head-to-head in the final session in the women’s 50 metres butterfly after Zhang Yufei qualified fastest for the final, 0.41 seconds ahead of second-placed Ikee.
Qin Haiyang, meanwhile, qualified ahead of Shin Ohashi in the men’s 50 metres breaststroke as the Chinese swimmer attempts to prevent the 17-year-old from completing a clean sweep of the gold medals in the discipline.
Qin saw Ohashi break his world record in the 200 metres on Thursday evening but responded by registering the fastest time in the one-lap event, touching in 26.87 seconds, 0.13 seconds in front of the Japanese swimmer.
“I think it’s important to be fastest for the final,” said Qin, who did not swim in the 200 metres as he continues his recovery from a knee injury suffered earlier in the year. “We must have confidence. That’s the important thing.”
Hidekazu Takehara recorded a time of 1 minute 58.15 seconds to qualify fastest for the men’s 200 metres backstroke final, three-quarters of a second in front of Korea’s Lee Ju-ho with Song Borui from China in third.
Wang Xizhe from China was the fastest in the preliminaries for the men’s 200 metres butterfly in 1 minute 59.28 seconds with Chinese Taipei’s Wang Kuan-hung finishing second and Tomoyuki Matsushita from Japan in third.
China will start in lane four in the 4 x 100 metres medley relay as the nation attempts to put a golden seal on another hugely successful Asian Games performance in the pool.
