China swimming ace left wanting more as Nepal break cricket records

HANGZHOU: World champion swimmer Zhang Yufei sent a major message to her Paris 2024 rivals on Wednesday (Sep 27) at the Asian Games as Nepal smashed multiple records in the cricket.

Hosts China lead the medals table with 76 golds, far ahead of South Korea (19) and Japan (15), after adding titles in a range of sports from artistic gymnastics and chess to beach volleyball and swimming.

The home nation and Zhang in particular have been in ominous form in the pool in Hangzhou, with the Paris Olympics coming up fast, just 10 months away.

The 25-year-old Zhang blasted the fastest time of the year to easily win the 100m butterfly gold, then helped China to come within a whisker of shattering the 4x100m mixed medley relay world record.

Zhang, who has already claimed the 200m fly crown in Hangzhou to go with her Olympic gold, surged to the wall in a new Games-record 55.86sec.

That beat the 56.12 that earned her the world title in July, but she wasn't happy.

"It doesn't feel so good. This wasn't the record I wanted, I wanted the world record," she said.

"I was aiming for it because even if I couldn't break it, I wanted to come close."

Swedish great Sarah Sjostrom has held the world mark of 55.48 since the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Zhang suited up again for the relay, part of a powerhouse team featuring triple breaststroke world champion Qin Haiyang, backstroker Xu Jiayu and freestyler Yang Junxuan.

They clocked 3:37.73 - the second fastest of all-time behind Britain's 3:37.58, set at the Tokyo Olympics two years ago.

China took home gold in four of the seven finals on the evening, with Japan (two) and South Korea (one) winning the others.

In hazy morning sunshine on day four of the Games, rampant Nepal rewrote the T20 international record books