China’s Pan Zhanle won the men’s 100m freestyle at the world championships in Doha on Thursday, establishing himself as one of the favorites for Olympic gold in five months.
The 19-year-old finished in 47.53 seconds, 0.19 seconds ahead of Italian Alessandro Milessi, with Hungarian Nandor Nemeth third in 0.25 seconds.
This is Pan’s first individual medal at a world championships, and he is set to make his Olympic debut in Paris in July, where he is likely to face 19-year-old Romania’s David Popovic, who broke the world record the same weekend. . The man he won the world title with, Australian Kyle Chalmers.
Both players chose to forego the championship at an awkward time.
“I’ve prepared very well. I know this is just the beginning and I’m going to keep working hard,” Pan said in a poolside interview. “See you in Paris.”
Advertisement – SCROLL TO CONTINUE
China won Sunday’s freestyle relay with an incredible first lap time of 22.26 seconds, while Pan set a new world record with a time of 46.80 seconds. This time he was more conservative, scoring a 22.55, but still placed first, just ahead of Milessi.
“I was feeling a little stressed,” Pang said ahead of her first individual final of the tournament.
“My time wasn’t very good,” he said.
Advertisement – SCROLL TO CONTINUE
China ended the night by winning their second gold medal of the day in the women’s 200m freestyle relay.
Li Bingjie, who withdrew from the previous night’s individual final after qualifying 7th, pushed China from 5th to 1st place in the third round.
Yang Pei-chee easily defeated the British players in the final leg.
Advertisement – SCROLL TO CONTINUE
China won with a time of 7:47.26, followed by Great Britain by 3.64 seconds and Australia in third place.
In the evening’s opening final, Great Britain’s Laura Stevens led from the start in the women’s 200 butterfly, holding off a late challenge from Denmark’s Helena Rosendahl-Bach, who finished 0.09 seconds behind in a time of 2:07.35. won over. Her third place was Bosnia’s Lana Pudar.
Claire Curzan won her second gold medal in the individual backstroke at the Doha Games, adding the 50m title to her 100m crown.
Thursday’s podium was the same for the 100 meters, with the 19-year-old American winning the short distance in 27.43 seconds, 0.02 seconds ahead of Australia’s Iona Anderson.
Advertisement – SCROLL TO CONTINUE
“You can’t even measure it,” Curzan said. “It’s strange that something like that would happen.”
“It’s 50 points, so we just have to enjoy it,” Curzan said. “I was lucky because it was whoever made the stars align that night.”
Advertisement – SCROLL TO CONTINUE
Third place went to Ingrid Wilm from Canada.
In the men’s 200m medley, Canada’s Finlay Knox made a breakthrough on the final lap, finishing 0.33 seconds ahead of America’s Carson Foster with a time of 1:56.64, and Italy’s Alberto Lazzetti took third place.
Leon Marchand, the Frenchman who won both of the past two world championships, although neither of his winning times resulted in a medal, will miss Doha in preparation for the Olympics in his home country.
“There’s a lot of big names that weren’t on the field tonight. It gave us an opportunity to step up and shine,” Knox said.
“I’m very happy to be in the spotlight tonight, but I’m always hungry because in the back of my mind I know there are faster swimmers out there.”