China’s Pan breaks 100m free mark at swimming worlds

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 time 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.

China won the relay in 3:11.08. Italy finished a second behind, with the United States rounding off the podium in 3:12.29.

Erika Fairweather became New Zealand’s first ever gold medalist at a World Aquatics Championships by winning the women’s 400 freestyle.

Fairweather, who claimed bronze behind Ariarne Titmus and Katie Ledecky at last year’s swimming worlds, won in a time of 3:59.44 seconds, 2.18 ahead of Li Bingjie of China.

Titmus and Ledecky were just two of the sport’s biggest names skipping the worlds, with the Olympics starting in Paris in just over five months. It is the first time in history a longcourse world championships has been held in the same year as an Olympics.

The men’s 400 free final was also without a defending champion but for a different reason as Ahmed Hafnaoui was surprisingly eliminated in the heats earlier in the day, finishing two seconds off the pace.

Kim Woo-min won in a personal best of 3:42.71 to claim South Korea’s first medal in the discipline since 2011.

In the 4x100 women’s free relay, the Netherlands took the gold in 3:36.61.