New Chinese teen swim star Pan crashes out of 200m heats

The 19-year-old posted the 38th fastest time in the heats, missing out on the semifinals which take place later in the day.

China’s Zhanle Pan competes in the final of the men’s 4X100m freestyle relay swimming event during the 2024 World Aquatics Championships. | Photo Credit: AFP

Chinese teenager Pan Zhanle was brought back to earth as less than 24 hours after breaking the men’s 100m freestyle world record he failed to progress in the 200m individual event at the world championships in Doha on Monday.

The 19-year-old posted the 38th fastest time in the heats, missing out on the semifinals which take place later in the day.

His time of 1min 51.03sec was seven seconds off his best of 1:44.65.

Pan had on Sunday timed 46.80sec to shave 0.06sec off the previous record of 46.86 achieved by Romanian David Popovici at the European championships in Rome in August 2022.

Pan achieved the new mark leading off his team during the 4x100m freestyle relay to set up teammates Ji Xinjie, Zhang Zhanshuo and Wang Haoyu to seal gold for China in 3:11.08.