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Tokyo 2020, Asia Recap Day 2: Li Bingjie Makes History In 400 Free

2020 TOKYO SUMMER OLYMPIC GAMES

Li Bingjie Earns China’s First-Ever Women’s 400 Free Olympic Medal

While all eyes were on the dual unfolding in the women’s 400m freestyle final between American Katie Ledecky and Australian Ariarne Titmus, another milestone of a swim transpired en route to bronze.

China’s Li Bingjie raced her way to 3rd place in a time of 4:01.08 behind the aforementioned pair, with Titmus taking gold in 3:56.69 and Ledecky next in line in 3:57.36.

In doing so, 19-year-old Li not only broke the Asian continental record and Chinese national record, but she in fact became the first woman ever from her nation to win a medal of any color in this 400m free event at an Olympic Games.

Quick Hits

  • 31-year-old Ryosuke Irie just missed out on the men’s 100m backstroke final, getting shut out of the top 8 by only .01. The 4-time Olympian will still have a chance in the 200m back later in the meet.
  • Both Reona Aoki and Kanako Watanabe missed moving on from the women’s 100m breaststroke heats, with the former placing 19th and the latter 17th.
  • Korea’s Hwang Sunwoo is still among the top male 200m freestyles for tomorrow’s final, with the 18-year-old owning the 6th fastest time of the semi-final in 1:45.53.
  • China’s Zhang Yufei nabbed 100m fly silver behind winner Maggie MacNeil of Canada and ahead of bronze medalist Emma McKeon of Australia.
  • Yan Zibei of China wound up 6th in the men’s 100m breaststroke, tying the United States’ Andrew Wilson in 58.99.

Continental & National Records Through Day 2

  • Chinese Record in women’s 4x100m free relay – 3:34.76
  • Chinese Record and Asian Record for Li Bingjie in 400m free 4:01.08
  • World Junior Record and Korean Record for Hwang Sunwoo in the men’s 200m free heats – 1:44.62

Medals Table for Asia Through Day 2

Rank            Nation                                                  Gold       Silver          Bronze     Total       Total Rank

4 1 0 0 1 3
7    China 0 1 1 2

 

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Bud
3 years ago

Anastasia Gorbenko set an Israeli record of 59.30 to qualify for the 100 back final, haven’t seen that mentioned in either Europe or Asia so thought I’d point it out.

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Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

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