Day 3 of the 2025 National Swimming Championships: Pan Zhanle wins gold in the 200m freestyle, while Sun Yang finishes 8th; Li Bingjie breaks the meet record to claim victory in the 1500m freestyle.
The men's 200-meter freestyle world record was set by German swimmer Biedermann at the 2009 Rome World Championships while wearing a high-tech swimsuit, clocking a time of 1:42.00. Both the Asian and national records were also achieved by Sun Yang at the 2017 Budapest World Championships, with a time of 1:44.39.
As the world record holder in the 100-meter freestyle, Pan Zhanle also ranks among the world’s elite in the 200m, 400m, and 800m freestyle events. His personal best in the 200m freestyle stands at 1:44.65, just 0.26 seconds shy of Sun Yang’s Asian record. In the 2024 World Aquatics Year-End Rankings, Pan placed 11th in the short-course 200m freestyle (1:41.59), 5th in the 400m freestyle (3:36.43), and 9th in the 800m freestyle (7:35.30)—even securing a 14th-place finish in the 100m individual medley (51.78). Meanwhile, in the long-course rankings, he finished 15th in the 200m freestyle (1:45.68) and 12th in the 400m freestyle (3:45.58).
In the women's 1500m freestyle final, Li Bingjie clinched the gold medal with a stunning time of 15:43.94, breaking the meet record of 15:45.59 previously held by Wang Jianjiahe. Young swimmers Yang Peiqi and Gao Weizhong finished second and third, respectively. Notably, the current Asian record for this event—15:41.49—was set by Wang Jianjiahe at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, where she placed fourth in the final (finishing with a time of 15:46.37).
In the women's 100m backstroke final, Wan Letian clinched the gold medal with a time of 59.21 seconds, while Peng Xuwei took home the silver with 59.49 seconds. Qian Xinan finished third in 1:00.11, all three athletes meeting the A standard (1:00.46).
In the women's 100m breaststroke, Tang Qianting clinched the gold medal with an impressive lead, finishing in 1:05.57—just 0.03 seconds off the silver-medal time of 1:05.54 from the Paris Olympics. Notably, Tang had already met the A-standard (1:06.87) during the semifinals. Yang Chang took home the silver with a time of 1:07.23, while Yu Jingyao secured bronze in 1:07.88. Like Xu JiaYu before her, Tang was the only athlete in this event to achieve the World Championships A-standard.
Tang Qianting currently holds the Asian record in this event (1:04.39), set at last year's National Championships. The world record, meanwhile, is 1:04.13, set by American swimmer Lilly King at the 2017 Budapest World Championships. Born in 2004, Tang Qianting has shown remarkable progress over the past two years, consistently breaking her own records and firmly establishing herself among the world’s top athletes. Achieving her own world record is now a heartfelt ambition for this young Shanghai-based athlete.
Veteran Ye Shiwen competed in the heats, swimming a time of 1:08.96 to finish fourth and advance, but she withdrew from the semifinals.
The schedule for May 20 is as follows:
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