Pan Zhanle After 100 Free Exit: ‘I Wasn’t in Good Shape Today’
Pan Zhanle didn’t think that an exit from prelims in the 200 freestyle at the World Aquatics Championships would have any bearing on his 100 free later in the meet.
Whether it did or not, he’s leaving Singapore without a medal in either.
Pan, the world-record holder in the 100 free, crashed out of the semifinals after going 47.81 to finish 10th on Wednesday night in Singapore.
“To put it plainly, I just wasn’t in good shape today,” Pan said. “I’ll continue to work hard.”
Pan finished 22nd in the 200 free on Monday, falling short of semifinals in an event he’s trying to expand his reach into. He was not terribly worried about that, thinking his issues in going 1:47.46 were specific to the longer distance.
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And when he went 47.86 in prelims of the 100 to finish comfortably sixth, that seemed a plausible explanation. But it ran aground on Wednesday.
Pan got trapped in a slow first semifinal of two. He finished third in it, but seven of the eight finalists came from the second heat. Pan was .02 behind Kyle Chalmers at the midway point in his heat. Chalmers came home in 24.56. Pan was a fraction slow in 25.03. It meant he was passed by Nandor Nemeth for second in the heat. But that didn’t help Nemeth either, the Hungarian ninth in 47.72, with Gui Caribe getting the last finals spot by .08.
Jack Alexy’s American record of 46.81 led the second heat. David Popovici was second and Egor Kornev third. Maxime Grousset, Matt Richards, Patrick Sammon and Caribe all jammed ahead of Nemeth and Pan.
Pan has ridden this line successfully before, though this time he got caught out. In Paris, he was in a three-way tie for 13th in prelims of the 100 free in 48.40, nearly missing out on semis. (Richards was one of the guys he tied.) Pan was quickest in semifinals at 47.21, then unleashed the fury that was his world record 46.40 in finals.
Pan was quicker in prelims in Singapore than in Paris. It took 47.94 to make the final eight in Paris and 47.64 in Singapore.
Given that jump, the verdict on Pan’s meet requires additional data. He’ll be part of the Chinese men’s 800 free relay on Friday, then the mixed free relay Saturday and Sunday’s men’s medley relay. He capped Paris with an otherworldly split of 45.92 on the medley relay as China won gold. Now, he’ll be looking to a relay result to salvage his summer.
