Swimming Worlds: at 19, Chinese Pan Zhanle sets a new world record in the 100m freestyle

Zhanle a profité des relais pour battre un record du monde. XinHua – Du Yu

The young Chinese Pan Zhanle broke the world record for the 100m freestyle in 46''80, removing six hundredths from the previous record held by the Romanian David Popovici, Sunday February 11 during the World Championships swimming in Doha.

Pan Zhanle, 19, set the mark during the 4 x 100m freestyle relay won by China in 3'11''08. The previous record was broken by Popovici during the European Championships in Rome in the summer of 2022.

"Yeah, that was an amazing time. I trusted my friends and we did our best,” Pan said. "I said to myself: "Swim hard." I was shocked when I saw the timer, I didn' wasn't expecting to break the world record now, I wanted to keep it for the Paris Olympic Games."

17 hundredths less than his personal best

Before these Worlds, Pan had only one world medal, silver in the 4 x 100 m freestyle relay last year in Fukuoka (Japan) .

He also has three Asian Games titles, including the 100m. His previous personal best was 46''97, which made him the fifth fastest man in the world before arriving in Qatar.