🏊♀️ It was a finswimming fiesta at the 2025 Chengdu World Games as the Chinese mainland women's relay team broke their own world record in the 4×50m surface relay!
After grabbing gold in the 4×100m surface relay on Sunday, the squad—Shu Chengjing, Xu Yichuan, Xie Wenmin, and Hu Yaoyao—dove into the pool on Monday with one goal: smash 1:08.00. With the crowd roaring, they powered through every lap and touched the wall in a stunning 1:07.99.
Xu said, "We're so happy, so excited! This is the first time our four athletes have competed together, and we're really surprised and unexpected to achieve such great results. The audience at the venue also cheered us on and gave us a lot of motivation."
The 33-year-old added, "Over the past two weeks, we've been practicing our baton exchange techniques non-stop. If we could improve by even 0.1 or 0.2 seconds, it would be crucial for breaking the record."
Germany built on their Sunday victory in the men’s 4×50m surface relay with another gold in the 4×100m, while Ukraine and South Korea took silver and bronze. The Chinese mainland finished sixth.
On the individual side, Hungary’s Nandor Kiss and Szebasztian Szabo Gyoergyei each set world records in the men’s 200m surface and men’s bi-fins 50m events. Ukraine’s Sofiia Hrechko claimed the women's 400m surface title with a blazing 3:11.88.
Across two days, athletes shattered seven world records and nine World Games records. Hungary led the medal table with five golds, three silvers, and one bronze, followed by Germany (three golds, three silvers), Ukraine (two golds, four silvers, five bronzes), and the Chinese mainland (two golds, one silver, one bronze). 🎉🌊
Reference(s):
China set a new finswimming relay world record at Chengdu World Games
cgtn.com
