Doha 2024, Asian Recap: Potential History In Women’s 100 Breast

2024 WORLD AQUATIC CHAMPIONSHIPS

• February 11th – February 18th
• Doha, Qatar
• LCM (50m)
• Meet Central
• SwimSwam Preview Index
• Official Entries
• Live Results (Omega)

The women’s 100m breaststroke saw an upset out of this morning’s heats, with reigning world champion Ruta Meilutyte of Lithuanian finding herself outside the top 16.

That opened the door for a new gold medalist, with a trio of Asian women ready to pounce on the chance to top the podium.

China’s Tang Qianting made some noise in tonight’s session, leading the pack with a time of 1:05.36, the sole sub-1:06 swimmer of the field. Her performance rendered her the 2nd-fastest Chinese performer of all time, sitting just .04 outside Ji Liping‘s super-suited national record of 1:05.32 from 2009.

Joining teammate Tang in tomorrow night’s final is Yang Chang, capturing the 3rd seed in 1:06.27 while Hong Kong’s Siobhan Haughey is also in the mix. Haughey snagged the 5th seed in a time of 1:06.41.

Should Tang, Yang and Haughey all make it onto the podium, they would mark the first-ever all-Asian women’s 100m breaststroke podium at a World Championships. The closest the continent came to a sweep was in 1994 when Chinese swimmers Dai Guohong and Yuan Yuan earned respective silver and bronzes while the champion was Samantha Riley of Australia.

Additionally, if Tang or Yang earn gold in Doha, they’ll represent the first Chinese woman to do so since Luo Xuejuan secured the top prize in 2003.

For her part, regardless of medal color, Haughey could become the first-ever World Championships medalist from Hong Kong in this women’s 100m breast event.

However, it won’t be smooth sailing for these women, as Irish national record holder Mona McSharry is holding steady as the 2nd seed in 1:06.11 and Tes Schouten of the Netherlands put up a solid 1:06.30 semi swim.

National/Continental Records Through Day 2:

• China
  • Men’s 100m free – Pan Zhanle, 46.80 *WORLD RECORD

Medal Table (Asia) Through Day 2: