DOHA, Qatar — Despite the absence of many of the sport's biggest names, the first day of the swimming events saw a world record at the World Aquatics Championships on Sunday.
Teenager Pan Zhanle swam the fastest 100 meters in history as he led off China's gold medal-winning 4x100 freestyle relay team.
His time of 46.80 seconds — with a split of 22.26 — took six hundredths off Romanian David Popovici's world record from 2022 and established the 19-year-old as one to beat in swimming's marquee race at this year's Paris Olympics. «Actually, I wasn't feeling in great form,» Pan said. «I would've been happy with just getting on the podium.
This morning in heats, the U.S., Great Britain and Italy were all quicker than us, and I just wanted to focus on doing my job well. »I told myself, 'Just swim hard.' I was shocked when I saw the time.