2014 Asian Games – Sun Yang Takes Down Hagino And Park In 400 Free – Day Three Finals

2014 ASIAN GAMES – SWIMMING

• Sunday, September 21st-Friday, September 26th
• Incheon, South Korea
• Prelims/Finals: 9AM/7PM local time
• Event website
• Entry lists
• Meet results

SCHEDULE

• Women’s 50 backstroke
• Men’s 50 freestyle
• Women’s 400 IM
• Men’s 200 breaststroke
• Women’s 100 butterfly
• Men’s 400 freestyle
• Women’s 4x200m freestyle relay

Women’s 50 backstroke

• World record – 27.06 – Zhao Jing – CHN (2009)
• Asian record – 27.06 – Zhao Jing – CHN (2009)
• Asian Games record – 27.45 – Gao Chang – CHN (2010)

Yuanhui Fu of China was able to separate herself from the field towards the end to hit the wall with a comfortable win in the women’s 50m backstroke. Her time of 27.66 was just about two tenths of a second slower than the Asian Games record of 27.45 set by Gao Chang of China in 2010.

The win did however, mark the third games in a row in which a Chinese women won the 50m backstroke. Previous to 2006, the 50s were not included in the schedule, making the Chinese a perfect three for three in this event.

Second tonight was Yekaterina Rudenko of Kazakhstan in 28.04 followed by Japan’s Miyuki Takemura in 28.27.

Men’s 50 freestyle

• World record – 20.91 – Cesar Cielo – BRA (2009)
• Asian record – 21.88 – Shinri Shioura – JPN (2014)
• Asian Games record – 21.94 – Ning Zetao – CHN (2014)

Winning the 50m freestyle was Zetao Ning of China falling just one one-hundredth of a second short of the Asian Games record which he set in the prelims of the race.

His time of 21.95 made him the only swimmer to break the 22-second barrier here in Incheon, as second place finisher Shinri Shioura of Japan touched in at 22.11.

That hold for Zetao marks the first gold for the Chinese men in the swimming portion of these games which has been absolutely dominated by the Japanese thus far.

Two Japanese swimmers however did make it on the podium tonight as Kenta Ito finished third in 22.16.

Women’s 400 IM

• World record – 4:28.43 – Ye Shiwen – CHN (2012)
• Asian record – 4:28.43 – Ye Shiwen – CHN (2012)
• Asian Games record – 4:33.79 – Ye Shiwen – CHN (2010)

As was expected, Ye Shiwen of China absolutely dominated the field in the 400m IM final to become repeat champion at just 18 years old.

Shiwen started out quick with a 1:00.86 100m fly split to lead the charge early heading into the backstroke. She let up a bit in the backstroke and was challenged by her countrymen Min Zhou and Vietnam’s Thi Anh Vien Nguyen who were both right with her at the 200 wall.

Nguyen fell of Shiwen’s pace, however did earn herself a bronze medal touching the wall in 4:39.65.

After the 200, Shiwen blasted the field with some great breaststroke splits continuing to advance her lead and touch that 300 wall in 3:29.93. With two wicked freestyle splits of 31.86 and 31.18 she made her move to fly home and touch the wall in 4:32.97 to not only win gold, but break her own Asian Games record from 2010.

Men’s 200 breaststroke

• World record – 2:07.01 – Akihiro Yamaguchi – JPN (2012)
• Asian record – 2:07.01 – Akihiro Yamaguchi – JPN (2012)
• Asian Games record – 2:09.97 – Kosuke Kitajima (2002)

Dimitriy Balandin of Kazakhstan shocked the world with a wickedly fast 200m breaststroke win, dropping plenty of time off his previous best time of 2:13.53 to go 2:11.11 in the prelims, and then 2:07.67 in the finals. Balandin time absolutely smashed Kosuke Kitajima’s previous 200m breaststroke Asian Games record of 2:09.97.

With that time, Balandin would’ve had the third fastest time overall during the 2013-2014 season behind Ross Murdoch of Scotland and Marco Koch of Germany.

Balandin is only 19 and had massive improvements to get the win here tonight, which shows tons of promise for the young swimmer.

Women’s 100 butterfly

• World record – 55.98 – Dana Vollmer – USA (2012)
• Asian record – 56.07 – Liu Zige – CHN (2009)
• Asian Games record – 57.76 – Jiao Liuyang – CHN (2010)

Xinyi Chen of China was a 56.61 to break the previous games record by over a second and win the event over fellow countrymen Ying Lu.

There was hardly any competition for Chen as she won the event by almost two full seconds. Second place finisher Lu touched the wall in 58.45. Following her was Li Tao of Singapore who was even well behind Lu, clocking in at 59.08. Only the top six finishers were under a minute.

That time for Chen would have ranked her third overall in the 2013-2014 season behind Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom and Denmark’s Jeanette Ottesen Gray.

Men’s 400 freestyle

• World record – 3:40.07 – Paul Biedermann – GER (2009)
• Asian record – 3:40.14 – Sun Yang – CHN (2012)
• Asian Games record – 3:41.53 – Park Tae-Hwan – KOR (2010)

After his completion of the Asian Games remained questionable following his absence from the Chinese 4x200m freestyle relay team last night, it seems as though Sun Yang got the rest he needed to come back and win the 400m freestyle final tonight.

Yang touched the wall in 3:43.23 to take home the win over Japan’s Kosuke Hagino who earned himself his fifth medal of these games with a silver, clocking in at 3:44.48.

Somewhat absent from the battle that was presumably to happen was Korea’s Park Tae Hwan who did finish third, but way back from the other two with a time of 3:48.33.

All three swimmers were together at the 100m mark and stayed that way through 200 meters. At the 300m mark they were all still bunched up although Sun Yang had separated himself by a bit. Park was third at that point, but just barely over a second behind Yang, and within striking distance of Hagino.

It was the last 100 meters where Park fell of pace and Yang and Hagino began to push hard to the wall and fight for the gold. Hagino stuck with Yang, but just couldn’t match his speed coming home and ended up taking the silver medal.

Women’s 4 x 200 freestyle relay

• World record – 7:42.08 – China (2009)
• Asian record – 7:42.08 – China (2009)
• Asian Games record – 7:51.81 – China (2010)

There was no surprise that China would win the 4x200m freestyle relay, but it was a lot closer than some might have predicted as they were closely followed by the Japanese team.

The Chinese women won the event in 7:55.17 followed by the Japanese team’s time of 7:58.43. Hong Kong finished third in 8:04.55.

Full meet results can be found here.