Asian Games 2023 swimming: Honda Tomoru wins thriller in men's 400m individual medley, earning Japan first swim gold
Honda mounted a last-length surge to beat teammate Seto Daiya and win Japan's first swimming gold of the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou on Tuesday (26 September).
Swimming
Honda Tomoru broke Japan's gold-medal drought in the swimming pool at the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou, People's Republic of China, on Tuesday evening (26 September) as he won a thrilling men's 400m individual medley final.
Honda, racing against teammate Seto Daiya and the hosts' Wang Shun, led early through the first 100m on the butterfly leg before dropping behind Seto, who made the most of his stronger backstroke and breaststroke.
Seto even appeared to be clear, leading Honda by around 1.2 seconds as they turned for the last time. However, Honda still had a remarkably strong kick left in him as he split a 27.93 last 50m free to overhaul his teammate comfortably, winning in 4:11.40.
Seto had to settle for silver in 4:12.88, while Wang was third in 4:15.12.
That was Japan's first gold of the swimming meet in Hangzhou, with Seto telling Japanese media afterwards: "Finally I got the number one! I’m relieved. I’m in good form right now. I want to carry on until the last day and win another gold medal (in the 200m fly)."
It was however to be the only disappointment on the night for the boisterous home crowd, with swimmers from China or Hong Kong China taking all the remaining gold medals.
Haughey doubles up on gold in 100m free
In the women's 100m freestyle, Hong Kong China's Siobhán Haughey added a second gold to her collection from Hangzhou following her win in yesterday's 200m free.
Haughey, racing her fourth final in three days (she also won 50m breaststroke and 4x100m freestyle relay bronze on Sunday evening), did not appear to be tired despite being in her seventh race of the meet.
The Asian record holder proved more or less untouchable in the race, leading from the front by a good distance from China's Yang Junxuan. Yang was never close to Haughey, who pulled away even further to win by around a full body length, breaking her own Asian record in the process in 52.17 seconds.
Yang (53.11) and fellow Chinese swimmer Cheng Yujie (53.91) completed the podium.
"I’m really happy that I can do a best time here," Haughey said afterwards. "I haven’t swum a best time since Tokyo (2020 Olympic Games, in 2021), but I knew I had the ability of going faster. I’m really glad that I could do it here at the Asian Games and break the Asian record.
"It just proves that I’m not at my peak yet and hopefully I can keep going and keep swimming faster. I try not to give myself too much pressure, I’m just going to keep doing what I do, train hard and see where that takes me.
"I don’t want to limit myself in any way, I don’t have a specific time goal. As long as I do my best the results will come."
The race was notable for the absence of the previous Asian Games record holder, Ikee Rikako of Japan, who withdrew from the morning's heats citing illness. The cancer survivor had spoken of feeling unwell following her earlier races at the event.
China smash men's medley relay Asian record as crowd go home happy
The evening's final race in the pool was the men's 4x100m medley relay, which ended up being no real contest between the teams. The loud home crowd roared their swimmers on all the way as a star-studded line-up clocked just over two-tenths outside the world record.
The hosts could count on Xu Jiayu – already a double gold medallist in Hangzhou – leading off on backstroke, Asian record holder Qin Haiyang on breaststroke, Wang Changhao on the fly, and another Asian record holder in Pan Zhanle anchoring on freestyle.
That combination put together meant neither of China's closest rivals, the Republic of Korea or Japan, really stood a chance of challenging for gold.
By the time Pan dived into the pool for the final leg he had a four-second lead, and all that was left was for him to time-trial to the finish with the world record – 3:26.78 set by the USA at the Tokyo Olympics – in mind.
In the end, Pan touched home in 3:27.01, just 0.23 seconds shy of the record and a massive new Asian best by nearly two seconds, breaking China's own Asian record from the World Championships barely two months ago.
Hwang Sun-woo anchored the South Koreans to a narrow silver medal (3:32.05), just ahead of Japan in 3:32.52.
Other winners on the day were Li Bingjie (China, women's 400m freestyle), Peng Xuwei (China, women's 200m backstroke), and Fei Liwei (China, men's 1500m freestyle).