CHINA RESPOND TO AUSSIE CLAIMS THAT PAN ZHANLE'S WORLD-RECORD SWIM IN THE 100M FREESTYLE FINAL IS 'NOT HUMANLY POSSIBLE' AS DOPING ROW CONTINUES

Pan Zhanle won gold in the men's 100m freestyle and set a new world record
Australian Brett Hawke said Pan's performance was 'not humanly possible'
Pan finished a length clear of another Aussie in Kyle Chalmers, who took silver

China and Australia are in a state of open conflict over a former Olympic swimmer and coach's insinuations that Pan Zhanle doped to win his 100 metre freestyle race by a body length.

The Chinese state's response to Australian Brett Hawke's claim that it was 'not humanly possible to beat that field' as Pan had, and that the swim was 'not real life,' came through the Chinese social media site Weibo.

One commentator on the site said: 'They [China] have trained and have the corresponding talent. Australia can't produce it, so they blame China.'

Another insisted: 'Pan swam well, and… the others did not swim to their best level, so the two added up to one body length.'

Pan claimed he was being blanked by swimmers from other countries. 'I said "hi" to [Kyle] Chalmers [who came second] but he totally ignored me.'

Chalmers said in response: 'No issues from my end.'

Pan's bizarre win, in a world-record time of 46.40 seconds - 1.08 seconds ahead of Chalmers - in a pool judged slow because it is shallow, led to female swimmer Zhang Zhang Yufei facing awkward questions after earning bronze in the women's 200 metres butterfly.

She said: 'Why are Chinese athletes questioned when they swim fast, but no one dares to question [Michael] Phelps or [Katie] Ledecky?'

However, the bewildering time comes after reports in April revealed that 23 Chinese swimmers had tested positive for a banned substance, trimetazidine, in 2021 but had still been allowed to compete at the Tokyo Olympics.

The winning margin explodes the usual tight margins of one of the closest races in the world.

The winning margin in the 100m freestyle final in Tokyo was six one-hundredths of a second.

In Rio 2016, it was 22 one-hundredths. It London 2012, it was one one-hundredth.

2024-08-02T20:07:59Z dg43tfdfdgfd