Korea’s Ji Yuchan Scores 50 Free Win In New Record Of 21.72 At Asian Games

19TH ASIAN GAMES

• Sunday, September 24th – Friday, September 29th (swimming)
• Hangzhou Olympic Sports Centre Aquatic Sports Arena, Hangzhou, China
• LCM (50m)
• Meet Central
• Entries
• Results

Bucking the trend of China having won every gold through day one as well as the first two events of day two of the 2023 Asian Games, 21-year-old Ji Yuchan of Korea fired off a new lifetime best to top the men’s 50m free podium.

Ji got to the wall in a swift time of 21.72, a new Games Record, while Hong Kong’s Ian Ho was .15 behind in 21.87 for silver.

Yesterday’s 100m free hero Pan Zhanle of China bagged the bronze in 21.92 as the only other swimmer to dip under the 22-second barrier this evening.

Pan did make history, however, becoming the first man to ever crack 22 in the 50m free, 47 in the 100m free and 1:45 in the 200m free.

As for Ji, his outing overtook his own previous Korean national record of 21.84 he produced just this morning in the heats of the event. That performance bested the 22.16 Yang Jae-hoon put on the books in 2020, making Ji the first-ever man from his nation to get under the 22-second threshold.

Ji’s gold medal-worthy performance also erased the previous Games Record of 21.94 China’s Ning Zetao established at the 2014 Asian Games. In fact, Ji’s new PB of 21.72 came within .05 of Japanese swimmer Shinri Shioura‘s Asian Record of 21.67 logged in 2019.

For his part, runner-up Ho fell just .01 outside of his own Hong Kong national record posted in April while Pan’s result this evening sliced .16 off his own previous career-quickest of 22.08 notched at this year’s Chinese Championships.