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Doha: China’s Pan Zhanle clinched the men’s 100m freestyle title at the World Championships in Doha on Thursday, confirming his status as one of the favourites for Olympic gold in five months.The 19-year-old won in 47.53 seconds, 0.19 seconds faster than Italy’s Alessandro Miresi, with Hungary’s Nandor Nemeth third at 0.25 seconds.
It was Pan’s first individual medal at a world championship and he will make his Olympic debut in Paris in July, where he could face Romanian David Popovici, also 19, who broke Popovici’s world record at the weekend, and Kyle Chalmers of Australia, the man he won the world title against.
Both chose to miss the awkwardly timed tournament.
“I’m fully prepared. I know this is just the beginning and I’ll keep working hard,” Pan said in a poolside interview. “See you in Paris.”
Pan Jianwei led the Chinese team to a stunning 22.26-second win in Sunday’s freestyle relay, setting a new world record of 46.80 seconds. He was more conservative this time, winning in 22.55 seconds, but still finished first, just ahead of Miresi. Pan Jianwei said he was “a little nervous” before his first individual final of the meet. “The result was not very good,” he said. China won its second gold of the night in the women’s 200-meter freestyle relay.
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