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
- Day 2 Finals Live Recap
- Day 3 Finals Live Recap
Through the first two days of swimming competition at the 19th Asian Games, China dominated the medal table, reaping nearly all of the available golds.
Today, however, Japan finally joined the gold medal party, courtesy of Tomoru Honda‘s victory in the men’s 400m IM. Honda, the Olympic silver medalist in the 200m fly, put up a time of 4:11.40 to lead a 1-2 punch, as Daiya Seto scored silver in 4:12.88.
Flash back to the last edition of the Asian Games in 2018 in Jakarta and the medal table was an entirely different story. Japan wound up on top of China, clearing 52 medals in all, including 19 gold. That type of performance is not going to happen this time around, however, as the likes of China’s Qin Haiyang, Zhang Yufei and Pan Zhanle show no signs of slowing down.
Hong Kong is still holding its own, largely due to 25-year-old Olympic multi-medalist Siobhan Haughey. Tonight doubled up on her 200m free victory from last night with a win in the 100m free, registering a new Asian Record of 52.17 in the process.
China was once again relentless, however, as Peng Xuwei took gold in the women’s 200m back (2:07.28), Fei Liwei topped the men’s 1500m free podium (14:55.47) and Li Bingjie busted out a new Asian Games Record of 4:01.96 to strike gold in the women’s 400m free.
China capped off the night with a decisive performance by the men’s 4x100m medley relay, as Xu Jiayu, Qin Haiyang, Wang Changdao and Pan Zhanle crushed a new national and Asian Record of 3:27.01. That not only beat the field handily but it also registered the #2 performance in history in the event.
Hell yeah