2024 WORLD AQUATICS SWIMMING WORLD CUP – INCHEON
- Thursday, October 24th – Saturday, October 26th
- Prelims at 9:30am local (8:30pm previous night ET)/Finals at 7:30m local (6:30am ET)
- Munhak Park Tae-Hwan Swimming Pool, Incheon, South Korea
- SCM (25m)
- Meet Central
- Event Schedule
- Entered Athletes
- SwimSwam Preview
- Day 1 Finals Recap/Day 2 Finals Recap/Day 3 Finals Recap
- Results
Pan Zhanle of China continued to impress at the 2024 World Aquatics Swimming World Cup in Incheon, Korea.
After upsetting a stacked men’s 400m freestyle field on day one, the reigning 100m free Olympic champion and world record holder doubled up with gold in the 800m free on the final night of action.
20-year-old Pan stopped the clock at a head-turning 7:35.30. That handily defeated the field, with the next-closest swimmer Kim Junwoo of the host nation touching nearly 4 seconds later in 7:39.15. Japan’s Kazushi Imafuku rounded out the podium in 7:40.77.
Pan’s effort this evening established a new World Cup record, with this performance overtaking the previous mark of 7:35.58 Italian Olympian Gabriel Detti put on the books in 2017.
The World Aquatics swimming database doesn’t list a SCM 800 free performance for Pan although his outing tonight now rendered him the Chinese record holder. His massive outing here easily wiped out the previous Chinese standard of 7:37.74 Fei Liwei established at the 2022 national short course championships.
The Asian record remains at the 7:33.78 Japan’s Shogo Takeda logged at the 2022 World Championships but Pan is now the 2nd-best Asian performer ever behind him.
As we reported after his 400m free victory, Pan’s foray into the mid-distance events isn’t entirely out of character for the fastest 100m freestyler in history. He was primarily focused on the longer events until he started training for sprints during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Must have gotten into the good stuff….
If the Chinese athletes are using “the good stuff” while being target tested last year and this year then anti-doping is basically worthless.
Pan could be the mother of all FBI informant
Purple pill?
Pan will be the first to break 3:40 in the 400 LCM
shame for you
Him and Leon are in their own tier at the top for men’s swimming right now
There are other sprinters that look a lot more juicy than Pan
… cant even catch up with Pan
That is really fast and insane. Do you think that he could win the 100,200,400, AND 800 if the Olympic schedule suits it?
800, no, 7:35 is an impressive time but in LCM that’s still in the 7:50s. 400 also seems like a stretch, but if he focuses on his 200 and takes it seriously that is a real possibility.
This is awesome. I do wish that he tried in the 200 free in Paris. I think he had a 1:42 in him.
He did try it… he was 22nd, with 1:49. Maybe you mean he should have focused on it, which he clearly didn’t (but if he had, maybe he would’ve been less successful in the 100.) Popovici also had a 1:42 in him, because he swam that before, it’s just that the final in Paris was slower than expected, for whatever reason. Obviously we’ll see what the future holds.
He clearly didn’t give his max. Did 1:49 looking like he was warming up, his goal was the 100 free
OK, but if he thought he’d have a 1:42 in him for the 200 and still have a 46 for the 100, wouldn’t he have “given his max” in both? Let’s remember he also nearly didn’t make it out of heats in the 100… he’s not superhuman (though obviously, he is the fastest 100 freestyler in history) and trying harder in the 200 may have led to him not even making the final in the 100.
To be more precise, his goal was to smash the 100 free WR, as he basically predicted as such in a prior interview (his comment not broadcasted until after the race, as agreed).
He has mentioned he was extremely nervous, leading up to the race (even suffered a bit of a fever, which apparently spread through several of his teammates). Never mind the “external distractions” (very real and otherwise) that were swirling around him and his team that could have disrupted his mental game. The 200 could have helped release some of those nerves.
So, he had a lot on his shoulders (and legs) with self-expectation alone such that he needed to harness his focus and energy to… Read more »
In an article with Denis Corterell he [Pan] stated that, “He entered the 200m freestyle but deliberately tanked his heat race to focus on the 100m.”
I guess I’m not sure what to get out of comments like “I wish he’d done the 200 in Paris” and when I point out that he had, the answer is “well, he didn’t really try” or “well, he tanked it.” Like, what is the point of saying this at all? He had the chance to try both of them “for real” and he didn’t (or he did but, either way, had a very slow time in the 200). Clearly this worked out really well for his 100m in the end.
Pan also alluded that he didn’t think he could beat the 200m freestyle experts at this Olympics which really should be the end of this hypothetical. Cause if he thought he had a chance to win that event he def would’ve went for it even if it might’ve hurt a bit his 100m free time cause with an extra gold medal there China would’ve overtook USA in the gold medals ranking which would’ve been huge considering that USA is gonna have the homefield advantage at the next Olympics (also in general who wouldn’t aim to win an extra gold medal if they thought it was within their reach ?).
Dude you are getting way worked up about this. I just wish Pan was at his best in the 200.
He really wanted a new world record in 100 free so it wouldn’t be a good strategy to tire himself out in the 200 free. He knows his limits.