PARIS: China's Pan Zhanle hailed a perfect world record swim that delivered the Olympic 100 metres freestyle gold on Wednesday and said he was unaffected by a doping storm that had engulfed his swim team in Paris.
The 19-year-old's incredible swim of 46.40 seconds at La Defense Arena sliced 0.40 seconds off his previous world record, set at the World Championships in Doha in February, while delivering China its first swimming gold.
China's swim team have been under intense scrutiny since revelations in April that 23 of the country's swimmers tested positive for a banned heart medication in 2021 but were allowed to compete at the Tokyo Olympics.
The World Anti-Doping Agency accepted the findings of a Chinese investigation that the test results were due to contamination from a hotel kitchen, and an independent review backed WADA's handling of the case. A World Aquatics audit concluded there was no mismanagement or cover-up by the governing body.
While Pan's name was not among the Chinese swimmers who were listed in the reports by the New York Times and German broadcaster ARD, he said he had been frequently visited by anti-doping testers.
"Last year I received 29 tests and never had a positive," he told reporters through a translator.
"From May to July, I had 21 tests, no positive. Today we received a second test already.
"I don't think there has been any impact (on me) because all the testing has been done in the normal procedure ... So it's not a big issue."
Pan's gold was the first gold out of five medals for the Chinese swim team, which has had silvers from men's backstroker Xu Jiayu and Tang Qianting, runnerup in the women's 100m breaststroke.
Zhang Yufei, who was named in reports as one of the 23, took bronze in the women's 100m butterfly, three years after taking the silver at Tokyo and gold in the 200m event.
Pan brushed off the personal significance of his world record swim, which left Australia's silver medallist Kyle Chalmers more than a second behind him.
However, he said his performance and the gold were important for China.
"For me, I don't think it means a lot because life continues," he added.
"For China, I think the gold medal means a lot because this is the first time China has broken a world record at this Games so it's something we need to feel happy about.
"It's a perfect performance and refreshing for everybody on the Chinese team so we can perform." --REUTERS