China and South Korea saw back-to-back gold medal wins in swimming at the 2024 World Aquatics Championships in Doha, Qatar, on Sunday.
Fastest swimmer: China’s Pan Zhanle, 19, bagged the gold from the 4x100m relay event by finishing in a record-breaking 46.8 seconds. Romanian teen swimmer David Popovici, 19, previously set the 100-meter record in 46.86 seconds, which he achieved at the European championships in Rome in August 2022.
China finished with a total time of 3:11.08, followed by Italy with 3:12.08 and the U.S. with 3:12.29.
Sunday’s historic win makes Pan the only Chinese man to hold a record in the event. Additionally, he is now included in the list of a very few men in history who have broken through the 47-second mark in the 100-meter freestyle.
First world title in years: Elsewhere at the championship, Kim Woo-min, 22, took home the gold from the men’s 400-meter freestyle, and with it, South Korea’s first world title in 13 years. Kim finished with a time of 3:42.71, followed by Australian Elijah Winnington, 23, with 3:42.86 and German Lukas Martens, 22, with 3:42.96.
South Korea last won the 400-meter freestyle in 2011 with two-time champion Park Tae-hwan. Park won his first world title in 2007.
What they’re saying: Speaking to reporters, Pan said he trusted his teammates and that they did their best to win a gold medal. While he previously told CGTN that he wanted to break the men’s 100-meter freestyle record, he said he did not expect to actually be able to do it.
Similarly, Kim told reporters he did not expect to win on Sunday. “It means so much to me that my first world championships medal was a gold medal,” he said.
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