Gan Ching Hwee finishes second in 400m freestyle, wins second Asian Games medal

TOKYO – Despite not being regarded as a medal contender in the women’s 400m freestyle at the Asian Games, Singapore’s distance swim queen Gan Ching Hwee thought to herself: “If I have a lane, I have a chance.”

From Lane 2 at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre, the 23-year-old turned that opportunity into a surprise silver on Sept 22, when she finished second in a national record of 4min 06.81sec, a massive improvement from her previous mark of 4:09.34 set at the Commonwealth Games in July.

China’s Li Bingjie (4:02.71) retained her gold, while Japan’s Ichika Kajimoto (4:07.45) took the bronze. Victoria Lim, Singapore’s other representative in the final, was 10th in 4:23.40 after setting a personal best of 4:20.51 in the morning’s heats.

It was Gan’s second medal at this Asiad, as she also bagged a silver in the women’s 1,500m freestyle final, which featured the same podium order as the 400m event, on Sept 20 in a national record of 16:00.45. Her time of 8:29.56 in the first 800m was also a national record.

Her double means that at the midway mark of the swimming competition, Team Singapore have surpassed the sole silver won by Teong Tzen Wei in the men’s 50m butterfly at the last Games in China in 2023.

Gan, who will compete in the 800m free on Sept 25, said: “I don’t think being on the podium in the 400 was part of my expectations in this meet. I was really gunning for the 1,500, so that was my main event.

“I was carrying through the momentum through the rest of the meet, and I was really excited and pumped up before today’s final.”

Her previous time placed her as only the 11th fastest swimmer over the distance in Asia in 2026. In the heats, she also placed fifth in 4:13.05.

But she burst into life in the evening’s final, “went out hard, hung in there, and trusted my training”.

Despite registering the fastest reaction time off the blocks at 0.61sec, Gan slipped into fourth place behind Chinese pair Yang Peiqi and Li, and Han Dak-yung at the first 50m before overtaking the South Korean at the next turn.

She then moved into second place at the 200m mark and never looked back.

Gan, who was sixth, fourth and fourth in the 400m, 800m and 1,500m events at the last Asiad in China in 2023, said: “After Hangzhou, I really wanted to come back and prove to myself that being on the podium was a possibility.

“To get my main event out of the way and getting the job done made me feel more confident, but the expectations keep growing.

“People ask why do I swim such a wide range of events. But just looking up to people I’ve raced with this year, like Lani Pallister at the Commonwealth Games, I see it’s possible to do it, and that’s very inspiring.”

Earlier in the day, she was also an inspiration to her national teammate and training partner, 16-year-old Russel Pang, who broke a national record when he finished second in the men’s 1,500m freestyle B final in 15:22.16 behind Qatar’s Saadeddin Saadeddin (15:21.33).

In the A final, China’s 19-year-old Zhang Zhanshuo claimed his third gold of these Games in 14:42.42, ahead of Japan’s Kaito Tabuchi (14:45.99) and Kazushi Imafuku (14:54.37).

Zhang said: “Others saying they want to beat me only fuels me even more. I love to win, but even more than that, I do not want to lose.”

China continued their domination of the Asian Games pool with two more victories.

Peng Xuwei won the women’s 200m backstroke final in an Asian record 2:05.77 to break her compatriot Zhao Jing’s longstanding mark of 2:06.46 set at the 2010 Games in Guangzhou.

The 23-year-old finished way ahead of fellow Chinese Sun Mingxia (2:08.65) and Japanese Rio Shirai (2:08.70). She said: “The psychological training I have been going through twice or thrice a week in the latter half of this year improved my mentality and self control.

“The old record has always been a target and motivation, and I hope my record now will inspire fellow Asian backstrokers to challenge me, so that we can all improve to be among the world’s elite. As for me, I hope to get faster for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics to challenge the best international swimmers.”

Xu Jiayu, Dong Zhihao, Xu Fang and Pan Zhanle then led from start to finish in the men’s 4x100m medley relay, winning gold in 3:27.89 ahead of Japan (3:28.70) and South Korea (3:31.97).

Singapore’s quartet of Reagan Cheng, Chan Chun Ho, Brandon Yap and Jonathan Tan were seventh in 3:40.63.

China’s triumph was notable for 31-year-old backstroke king Xu Jiayu, who completed a four-peat in this event. If he completes his backstroke triple-triple with a 200m gold on Sept 25, he will break retired Chinese shooter Wang Yifu’s record of 14 Asiad golds with his 15th.

Two events did slip through China’s grasp, as Japanese high-school student Yumeki Kojima thrilled the vociferous home crowd, which included French Olympic champion Leon Marchand, by winning the men’s 400m individual medley gold in a Games record of 4:07.02.

After beating teammate and Paris 2024 Olympics silver medallist Tomoyuki Matsushita (4:09.64) and Chinese crowd favourite Wang Shun (4:14.59), the 17-year-old said: “After losing to Tomoyuki in the 200m IM, it is a good time for me to win today. Next, I would like to win gold at the Olympics.”

In the women’s 100m freestyle, Hong Kong’s Siobhan Haughey remained untouchable, retaining her title in 52.45sec, a comfortable distance away from China’s Yu Yiting (53.21) and Cheng Yujie (53.47), to complete the 100m and 200m double in front of her parents in the stands.

The 28-year-old, the first Hong Kong swimmer to win an Olympic medal and also Asian Games gold, said: “I felt the love and support. When I walked out, I looked around just to absorb the energy from the crowd and that really helped.”