China not satisfied with perfect start to Asiad swimming meet

HANGZHOU – Records kept tumbling at the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Park Aquatics Centre, as China enjoyed a perfect start to the Asian Games swimming programme by winning all seven golds on Sunday.

Around 6,000 people packed the stands, as journalists spilled out of a packed media tribune to sit on the steps, to witness a superb show of strength as the first four finals saw the hosts winning gold and silver.

Following a digital light show, China’s Olympic and world champion Zhang Yufei dazzled in the first final – the women’s 200m butterfly – in a Games record of 2min 5.57sec, edging the previous mark of 2:05.79 set by compatriot Jiao Liuyang in 2010 and claiming her first gold in what could be a nine-event programme for the 25-year-old.

Yu Liyan took silver in 2:08.31, while Japan’s Hiroko Makino claimed bronze in 2:09.22.

Zhang later anchored the women’s 4x100m freestyle team to victory, and said: “I feel really good. My first mission was to take the gold for China, next was to beat the Games records, and we also did that. I actually felt the pool was a little slow for me and I told my coach I wasn’t feeling in good form. I could have gone even faster.”

Despite the golden flourish, there was a tinge of disappointment. Pan Zhanle, 19, became the first man from the continent to go under 47 seconds in the men’s 100m freestyle, winning the race in 46.97sec to surpass his previous record of 47.43sec but just missing out on Romanian David Popovici’s world record of 46.86sec.

Teammate Wang Haoyu was second in 48.02sec and South Korean Hwang Sun-woo took bronze in 48.04sec.

Pan said the Asian record does not feel “extraordinary”, adding: “I had my eyes on the world record, so it was quite a pity to miss it by 0.11 seconds.”

Another Chinese Olympic champion Wang Shun retained his men’s 200m individual medley crown when he rewrote his own Asian record, by touching the wall first in 1:54.62 to eclipse his previous best of 1:55.00.

Qin Haiyang clinched silver in 1:57.41, while Tokyo’s Daiya Seto took bronze in 1:58.35. Breaststroke expert and world champion Qin also had the fans in a tizzy and almost caused a mini stampede when he tossed his bouquet into the stands.

In the women’s 1,500m freestyle final, Li Bingjie won gold in a Games record of 15:51.18, lopping more than two seconds off Wang Jianjiahe’s 2018 mark of 15:53.68.

Gao Weizhong, still only 15, took silver in 16:05.73, while Japan’s Yukimi Moriyama was third in 16:17.78.
Just two out of the six individual finals did not feature a China 1-2 finish, and only one failed to see any record fall.

The women’s 50m breaststroke was won by Tang Qianting, who delivered gold in 29.96sec but the 19-year-old had already swum 0.04sec faster in the morning heats to set an Asian record. Japan’s Satomi Suzuki was second in 30.14sec, while Hong Kong’s Siobhan Haughey took bronze in 30.36sec.

Xu Jiayu then retained his men’s 100m backstroke crown in a Games record of 52.23sec, bettering the old mark of 52.34sec he shared with Japan’s Ryosuke Irie, who took silver in 53.46sec, while South Korea’s Lee Ju-ho claimed bronze in 53.54sec.

China’s awesome night was completed by the women’s 4x100m relay team comprising Yang Junxuan, Cheng Yujie, Wu Qingfeng and anchor Zhang, as the quartet won in a Games record of 3:33.96 to trump Japan’s 2018 mark of 3:36.52.

The Chinese have reigned in the pool for six out of seven meets since 1990, when they snapped Japan’s nine-Games streak of topping the swimming standing. However, in 2018, the Japanese pipped them to top spot by silver medals after both nations won 19 golds.

Even with 34 more gold medals up for grabs and five more nights of racing to go, China’s superb start suggests they could re-establish their dominance in resounding fashion.