Twice a day at the World Swimming Championships “overtaking on the back end” turned the tide Pan Zhanle continued to be amazed and refused to be short-lived
Hangzhou Daily News “Watching contestants in the stands”, this is Pan Zhanle’s online name, and perhaps it is also the state of mind of this 17-year-old swimmer who has almost no competition experience.
But after coming to Budapest, he undoubtedly became the biggest surprise for the Chinese team in this World Championship. On June 23rd, Beijing time, Pan Zhanle staged a deflagrating “rear overtaking” twice in the single event and relay competition, and continued to deliver stunning performances.
He first came to the fourth place in the men’s 100-meter freestyle final held in the early morning. In the afternoon, he staged a brave sprint again in the men’s 4×200-meter freestyle relay preliminaries, leading his team to overtake to the final.
Before the much-anticipated “Hundred Self Wars”, the 17-year-old Romanian star Popovich announced in a high-profile manner: “Please watch me perform in the final.” And the American professional swimming website Swim Swan specially published a single article featuring the 17-year-old Zhejiang teenager Pan Zhanle’s great book and special book.
However, the finals of the swimming group that ignited the atmosphere before the game did not turn out as quickly as expected. In the final, only 4 people swam into 48 seconds, and in the semi-final there were 10. Popovich was crowned as he wished, becoming the second player in history to complete the men’s 100-meter freestyle and 200-meter freestyle titles in a single session since the 1973 World Championships.
But Popovich isn’t alone. Pan Zhanle’s 50-meter speed in the first half of the final was not fast and only ranked 7th, but he suddenly accelerated 50 meters after turning around and finally caught up to 4th. In the second half of the 50 meters, Pan Zhanle took 24.84 seconds to be the fastest in the game, 0.02 seconds faster than Popovich.
“The final may still be a little nervous. After all, it was my first time to participate in the World Championship final, and I set a new personal best in the semi-final. In fact, I wanted to do it again in the final. Popovich improved by 2 seconds in 3 months. Why can’t I? Best score 3 times in a row?” Pan Zhanle said after the game.
In the end, Pan Zhanle was only 0.08 seconds behind Liendo, the bronze medalist, and 47.79 seconds was 0.05 seconds faster than Ning Zetao’s victory at the 2015 Kazan Swimming World Championships.
Pan Zhanle said: “I am in very good condition during this time, but Popovich is swimming really fast. I hope I can compete with him in the near future.”
The final was over the night before local time. After Pan Zhanle fell asleep, he played in the men’s 4×200m freestyle relay preliminaries held yesterday morning local time. The lineup of the Chinese team in the preliminaries is Hong Jinquan, Zhang Ziyang, Chen Juner and Pan Zhanle.
The fourth player, Pan Zhanle, was still at the bottom of the group at the time of the handover. He relied on his strong personal ability to turn the tide, and finally overtook the Italian team and the Australian team to catch up to the third place in the group, helping the Chinese team to advance to the final with a total score of 5th.
The results of the 5th to 8th places on the final list are very close. It can be said that Pan Zhanle’s strong sprint in the final stage brought the Chinese team to the final held in the early morning of Beijing time.
After several battles with high-level opponents, Pan Zhanle’s confidence increased. “As for whether I can win the medal, it will be mine after all. If I didn’t get it this time, it may be mine next time.”