Qin Haiyang hails ‘miracle of Lane 8’ after winning 200m breaststroke at World Aquatics C’ships

SINGAPORE – Having qualified with the slowest time in the men’s 200m breaststroke final, there was a huge question mark over Chinese swimmer Qin Haiyang’s hopes of a golden double at the World Aquatics Championships (WCH) in Singapore.

While he had swept all three breaststroke events at the 2023 edition in Fukuoka, where he also set the 200m world record of 2min 5.48sec, he has been struggling for consistency of late.

At the Paris 2024 Olympics, he finished seventh in the 100m breast final and could not even reach the 200m final.

He won the 100m gold and 50m bronze at the WCH Arena in Singapore, but the Jekyll and Hyde showing continued as he nearly missed the 200m final again, finishing eighth overall in the semi-finals on July 30 in 2:09.32, just 0.28sec clear of the ninth-placed swimmer, Britain’s Gregory Butler.

As the attention centred on the top qualifiers – Japan’s Ippei Watanabe, American A.J. Pouch and Dutchman Caspar Corbeau – in the Aug 1 final, Qin stole the thunder from Lane 8, one of the outermost lanes, as he touched the wall first in 2:07.41.

Watanabe was second in 2:07.70, with Corbeau just 0.03sec behind in third.

As Qin rose from the water, he raised his arms in triumph while the Chinese fans roared their approval.

“Have you heard of the Lane 8 miracle? You saw it tonight,” he said. “When I finished, I actually didn’t know if I finished first, second or third. I just heard ‘wooooo’.

“The gold medal isn’t actually the most important thing. Regardless of whether I won the gold medal today or not, what I truly wanted was to achieve a better performance in terms of my results.”

While Qin was about two seconds slower than his world record, American Kate Douglass was less than a second from the world mark of 2:17.55 in the women’s 200m breaststroke final.

The 23-year-old eventually finished in a championship-record 2:18.50, eclipsing the previous mark of 2:19.11 set by Denmark’s Rikke Pedersen in 2013.

Russian Evgeniia Chikunova, the world record holder who was competing as a neutral athlete, was second in 2:19.96, with South African Kaylene Corbett and Belarusian neutral athlete Alina Zmushka joint third (2:23.52).

Douglass said that she was not upset to have missed the world record, adding: “I think that win was huge, not just for me, but for the whole team. I wanted to just get a gold for Team USA and to help our medal count here.”

“Honestly, I was really happy with that time... I was hoping to get under 2:19 and I was just hoping to really have a good race and hopefully get my hand on the wall first,” she added.

In the men’s 200m backstroke final, Paris Olympic gold medallist Hubert Kos clocked 1:53.19 to reclaim the title that the Hungarian won in Fukuoka, while also breaking the European record.

South Africa’s Pieter Coetze was second in 1:53.36, with Frenchman Yohann Ndoye-Brouard third (1:54.62).

“(Winning) was great. I’ll be honest, I don’t feel great after that. I’ve had a tough schedule here and really, really happy with how things turned out,” said Kos. “It’s a great learning process and I think I might be happy with that.”

He had just earned a bronze in the 200m medley the night before, having also finished fourth in the 100m back final on July 29 and taken part in the 4x100m freestyle relay on July 27.

He has one last event in the 50m back, with the heats and semi-finals on Aug 2 and the final on Aug 3.

In the women’s 100m free, Dutchwoman Marrit Steenbergen retained her title, clocking 52.55sec, ahead of Australia’s Mollie O’Callaghan (52.67) and American Torri Huske (52.89).

Steenbergen, who finished seventh at the Paris Olympics, said: “For me, this year was better. (Winning for) the first time, you don’t have that much pressure (but) the second time, people expect more of you because you’re the reigning world champion.”

With Olympic gold medallist Sarah Sjostrom on maternity leave and Hong Kong’s Siobhan Haughey out with an injury, Steenbergen said the field here is “really different”, adding: “I don’t know if it’s tougher here (but) I think the world championships is always tough to race.”

In the day’s final race, Britain’s Matthew Richards, James Guy, Jack McMillan and Duncan Scott took home the gold in the men’s 4x200m freestyle relay in 6:59.84.

China’s Ji Xinjie, Pan Zhanle, Wang Shun and Zhang Zhanshuo claimed silver in 7:00.91, breaking the Asian record set by South Korea (7:01.73) at the Asian Games in Hangzhou in 2023.

Australia’s quartet of Flynn Southam, Charlie Hawke, Kai James Taylor and Maximillian Giuliani finished third in 7:00.98.

McMillan said: “I said to the boys that we can’t think this is normal. This is pretty special and we can’t take it for granted at all because (it was) so hard fought.

“Everyone is kind of looking at us now and challenging us. No matter what way we swim, they’re looking to get at us. We’ve got good depth in this event and that drives each of us as well.”

Singapore (7:23.00) were 15th of 16 in the heats.