China had a remarkable start to the Hangzhou Asian Games, winning 20 gold, seven silver, and three bronze medals on the opening day of the competition. Chinese athletes dominated the day’s events, with swimmers, shooters, and Wushu athletes securing gold medals. Olympic champion swimmers Zhang Yufei and Wang Shun won seven titles in the pool.
At the Asian Games, Pan Zhanle, a talented swimmer from China, made history by becoming the first Asian athlete to complete the 100 meters freestyle in under 47 seconds.
He achieved this feat with a remarkable time of 46.97 seconds, which is the fifth-fastest time ever recorded. This victory has established him as a strong contender for the blue-riband event at the Paris Olympics, which is just a year away.
Pan Zhanle, the 19-year-old Chinese swimmer, expressed disappointment despite his historic win at the Asian Games. He completed the 100 meters freestyle in 46.97 seconds, which is the fifth-fastest time ever recorded, but he missed the world record by 0.11 seconds.
Pan had his eyes set on breaking the world record of 46.86 seconds held by Romanian David Popovici, who is also 19 years old. He also felt that breaking the Asian record was not extraordinary and something he should have achieved.
Despite his disappointment, Pan’s win was the highlight of the opening day of swimming, where China won all seven titles in the pool and 20 of 31 gold medals across all competitions.
Wang Shun, the Chinese swimmer who lit the cauldron at the opening ceremony of the Asian Games, won the gold medal in the men’s 200 meters individual. He set a new Asian record with a time of 1 minute and 54.62 seconds, which is a remarkable achievement.
Wang led throughout the race and secured the first position. This made him the third-fastest swimmer in the event after Ryan Lochte and Michael Phelps. Wang’s win was remarkable as he broke the Asian record to win gold at the Tokyo Olympics.
Qin Haiyang, another Chinese swimmer who won three gold medals at the Fukuoka worlds in July, secured second place with a time of 1:57.41. Daiya Seto from Japan finished third in 1:58.35.
The Olympic 200 meters butterfly champion, Zhang Yufei, also won her event with ease, setting an Asian Games record of 2 minutes 05:57 seconds.
Chinese shooters secured two gold medals and one silver, while Chinese Wushu athletes Sun Peiyuan and Tong Xin won gold in the men’s Changquan and women’s Taiji all-round, respectively.
In artistic gymnastics, the host gymnasts defended their men’s team title, scoring 262.025 points, and secured a gold medal. Han Jiayu, Huang Yuting, and Wang Zhilin, all from Zhejiang, clinched China’s first shooting gold in the women’s 10m air rifle team event with 1,896.6 points.
India and Mongolia also secured medals on the opening day of the competition. China led the medal tally with 20 golds, followed by South Korea with five golds. Japan and Hong Kong, each secured two gold.
