BEIJING, Sept. 17 (Xinhua) — The Asian Games swimming competitors will begin on September 24 and China’s staff is anticipating to proceed their good kind from the current Fukuoka World Championships and the Chengdu Universiade.
Swimming competitions on the Asian Games have often seen battles between Japan and China. Five years in the past in Jakarta, the 2 international locations tied with 19 gold medals. This time in Hangzhou, the host nation is sending most of its star swimmers, and expects to prime the medal tally at dwelling.
China took 5 gold, three silver and eight bronze medals in Fukuoka in July, rating third within the medal tally behind solely Australia and the United States, whereas Japan disillusioned and completed the competitors with solely two bronze medals.
China’s Olympic champion Zhang Yufei is in prime kind this 12 months. After profitable the ladies’s 100m butterfly in Fukuoka, Zhang took half in 9 occasions on the Chengdu Universiade and picked up all 9 gold medals there. Zhang will compete within the 50m, 100m and 200m butterfly, the 50m freestyle and three relay occasions in Hangzhou.
“I want to prepare myself better for the Paris Olympics next year,” mentioned Zhang.
Newly topped breaststroke king Qin Haiyang may even draw consideration in Hangzhou as he’ll take part within the males’s 50m, 100m and 200m breaststroke and two relays. He holds Asian data in three occasions and a world file within the 200m.
Meanwhile, rising star Pan Zhanle expects to win the boys’s 100m freestyle, having lowered the occasion’s Asian file twice this 12 months. The 18-year-old’s largest rival will probably be South Korea’s Hwang Sun-woo, who took a bronze within the 200m freestyle on the Fukuoka Worlds.
Elsewhere, Olympic champion Wang Shun is aiming for glories within the particular person medley, whereas world champion Xu Jiayu, who received 5 golds on the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games, is a gold favourite within the males’s 50m and 100m backstroke. Xu’s outdated rival, Japan’s Irie Ryosuke, is struggling for kind after failing to make the semifinals in 100m in Fukuoka.
In addition to these Olympic and world champions, some younger swimmers are aiming to show themselves on the Asian Games. Yu Yiting, who took a bronze medal within the ladies’s 200m medley on the World Championships, is more likely to win the 200m and 400m medley gold in Hangzhou. Meanwhile, Wang Xue’er and Wan Letian will duel within the ladies’s 50m backstroke.
Japan’s leukemia survivor Ikee Rikako, who received six golds and two silvers in Jakarta, will participate within the Asian Games. “I have gold medal hopes in the 50m butterfly at the Asian Games,” mentioned the 23-year-old.
“The Chinese swimmers are very strong and I cannot medal in every event as I did in the last Asian Games. But I will try my best and tell the world ‘Ikee is back’.”
The swimming competitors will kick off on September 24 and there will probably be seven gold medals on provide on the primary day.