TOKYO, Sept. 20 (Xinhua) — 13-year-old Chinese swimmer Yu Zidi made a powerful Asian Games debut on Sunday, successful her first main worldwide title as China claimed six gold, one silver and two bronze medals on the opening day of swimming competitors.
Yu dominated the ladies’s 200m butterfly in two minutes and 5.08 seconds, setting a brand new Games report. Fellow Chinese Chang Mohan took silver in 2:08.44.
“I hope I can swim even faster,” Yu stated with a smile. “I believe I will perform better next time.”
The teenager stated she nonetheless had room for enchancment, notably in her method. “I need to lower my head earlier and improve the movement of my legs,” she stated.
For Yu, the gold marked the start of her Asian Games journey. She turned the youngest swimming world championships medalist in historical past final yr on the age of 12, when she helped China win bronze within the girls’s 4x200m freestyle relay in Singapore. She can be one of many youngest athletes to be nominated for the Laureus World Sports Awards.
China additionally gained the ladies’s 4x100m freestyle relay in a Games report time of three:33.10. Zhang Yufei stated she was “very happy” with the outcome and felt she had produced a peak-level efficiency in her leg.
Returning to the Tokyo Aquatics Centre, the place she had competed on the Tokyo Olympic Games, Zhang stated she felt a uncommon sense of familiarity and luxury. “I really enjoyed it and felt completely immersed,” she stated.
Tang Qianting defended her girls’s 50m breaststroke title in 29.45 seconds, bettering the Games report she set within the morning. “I think I can still do better,” Tang stated, setting her sights on breaking the 29-second barrier.
Olympic champion Pan Zhanle additionally defended his males’s 100m freestyle title in 47.61 seconds. Although the outcome fell wanting his expectations, Pan stated he had regained some confidence after a troublesome interval. “I don’t care as much about winning or losing as I used to. I just want to enjoy the competition and leave no regrets,” he stated.
The opening day additionally noticed Xu Jiayu efficiently defend his males’s 100m backstroke title in an occasion report of 51.98 seconds, whereas Li Bingjie retained her girls’s 1,500m freestyle title in 15:53.52.
In the boys’s 200m particular person medley, five-time Asian Games veteran Wang Shun took bronze as Japan’s Tomoyuki Matsushita gained gold.
For Wang, returning to the Tokyo venue introduced again reminiscences of his successful Olympic competitors 5 years in the past.
“It felt like I was making up for the regret of having no spectators five years ago,” Wang stated. “I really enjoyed it and was completely immersed in it.”
For Yu, the primary day of competitors marked the start of what guarantees to be a busy Asian Games marketing campaign, with two extra particular person occasions nonetheless to come back.