Renowned Chinese athletes Wang Shun and Pan Zhanle once again demonstrated their dominance in the swimming pool by clinching gold in the men's 200m individual medley and 100m freestyle, respectively, at the 15th National Games of China on Friday night.
At the swimming events held in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, Wang Shun of east China's Zhejiang Province claimed the men's 200m individual medley title, marking his 18th National Games gold medal.
The 31-year-old veteran maintained the lead from the start and touched the wall first with a time of 1 minute 56.20 seconds, completing a four-peat at the National Games.
Guangdong's Tao Guannan finishes second, and Shanghai's Chen Nuo comes third.
After the competition, Wang told China Media Group (CMG) that he feels proud to achieve the four-peat.
"My senior teammate Wu Peng has achieved the feat of a four-peat when I competed at the National Games for the second time. I didn't have many thoughts at that time, and I didn't realize I could accomplish this as well. After I won my first gold at the National Games, I wanted to defend the title. Each time, the difficulty grows by multiple times. I feel very proud of myself as I get such a good result in the individual medley," said Wang.
In the men's 100-meter freestyle, world record holder Pan Zhanle, also from Zhejiang, secured victory with a winning time of 48.01 seconds, adding the title to his list of Olympic, Asian Games, World Championships, and World Cup crowns.
The southeast Chinese province of Fujian's Liu Wudi claimed silver, while Henan's Wang Haoyu and Jiangsu's Zhao Jiayue shared the bronze.
The National Games are underway across Guangdong Province, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, and the Macao Special Administrative Region from Nov 9 to 21, marking the first time that the three Chinese regions are co-hosting the country's highest-level and largest national multi-sport event.
Renowned Chinese athletes Wang Shun, Pan Zhanle excel at National Games' swimming
