China News Service, Beijing, February 12 (Reporter Xing Rui) On the 11th local time, the 2024 Doha World Swimming Championships will continue. In the men's 4×100m freestyle relay final, the Chinese team consisting of Pan Zhanle, Ji Xinjie, Zhang Zhanshuo and Wang Haoyu won the championship with a time of 3 minutes, 11.08 seconds. Among them, Pan Zhanle, who started the first leg, swam 46.80 seconds, breaking the men's 100-meter freestyle world record.

  Image source: FINA social media

　　"The world record is not the end, my career has just begun." In an interview after the game, 19-year-old Pan Zhanle was full of confidence in the future.

　　Audiences who are familiar with swimming will not be unfamiliar with Pan Zhanle's name. He already made a name for himself in swimming two years ago.

　　At the 2022 World Championships in Budapest, Pan Zhanle swam a good time of 47.65 seconds in the 100-meter freestyle semi-finals, tying the national record held by Ning Zetao. At last year's National Swimming Championships, Pan Zhanle won six gold medals in one go and broke the Asian record for men's 100-meter freestyle held by South Korean player Huang Sun-woo with a time of 47.22 seconds.

　　Immediately following the Hangzhou Asian Games, Pan Zhanle continued to make breakthroughs in the 100-meter freestyle. He won the championship with a time of 46.97 seconds, breaking the 47-second mark and becoming the first Asian athlete to achieve this result.

  In the men's 100-meter freestyle final of the 2023 National Swimming Championships, Pan Zhanle won the championship in 47.60 seconds. (File photo taken by China News Service reporter Tomita)

　　From the outside world, these honors are the realization of Pan Zhanle's talent. But he himself thinks: "I can only be regarded as a relatively hard-working player."

　　At the age of 4 and a half, Pan Zhanle was selected by the Wenzhou Youth Swimming School because of his good physical fitness. At the age of 12, he entered the provincial team due to his excellent performance.

　　Pan Zhanle once recalled that it took him about half a year to slowly adapt to life there. Later, Pan Zhanle fell into a trough due to development problems: "In 2017 and 2018, everyone else had developed, but I hadn't. My strength and height couldn't improve. I felt like I couldn't swim as well as others no matter how hard I tried."

　　It wasn't until Pan Zhanle won the 1,500-meter freestyle event at the 2019 National Summer Swimming Championships that he slowly regained the confidence to persevere.

　　After joining the national team, Pan Zhanle worked harder on training. He usually swims six out of seven days a week: "Swim five or six thousand meters in the morning and seven thousand meters in the afternoon. In total, he can swim 12,300 meters in one day." After the full-day training, he still has to swim Make time to finish college.

  Pan Zhanle is enjoying the game. (Data map)

　　"Records are meant to be broken." This is a saying Pan Zhanle often says. Perhaps it is with this belief that Pan Zhanle can swim faster and faster in the swimming pool. Until now at the World Championships in Doha, he has improved the original world record held by the famous Popovich by 0.06 seconds.

　　The rise of Pan Zhanle has brought surprises to the swimming world in China and even the world. The World Swimming Federation commented: "He shocked the world with his 100-meter freestyle world record."

　　The swimming competition at this World Championships has just begun. Next, Pan Zhanle will compete in the men's 50-meter freestyle, 100-meter freestyle and 200-meter freestyle competitions.

　　"I think I can swim faster." Pan Zhanle said. (over)