The first world record time in the Paris pool has been set, with China's Pan Zhanle beating his own record to take home gold in the Men's 100m Freestyle Final.
Zhanle was dominant from the offset in a star-studded pack of swimmers, including Australia's Kyle Chalmers, Romanian David Popovici, Hungary's Nandor Nemeth and American Jack Alexy.
Chasing the world record pace he set at this year's World Championships in Doha in the 4x100m relay, Zhanle was the first to turn at the 50-metre mark and held off the chasing pack, which included Chalmers, Nemeth and Popovici.
Not only would Zhanle finish a second ahead of Chalmers to win gold, but he would best his world record time by four-tenths of a second, touching the wall with a time of 46.40 seconds to claim gold.
The 19-year-old said after the race that he was shocked by his own feat in what was a "magical moment".
"I tried my best to get the best result," Pan said.
"I was very surprised in the end that I broke the world record and it was a magical moment."
Chalmers trailed with a time of 47.78 seconds to take silver and his third medal of the Olympics, while Popvici was 0.01 seconds behind the Australian speedster and came away with a bronze medal.
Nemeith would be 0.01 seconds off matching Popovici, while the rest of the pack also fell under the 48-second mark.
Final Results
- PAN, Zhanle (CHN) - 46.40 seconds (WR)
- CHALMERS, Kyle (AUS) - 47.48
- POPOVICI, David (ROU) - 47.49
- NEMETH, Nandor (HUN) - 47.50
- GROUSSET, Maxime (FRA) - 47.71
- SALCHOW, Josha (GER) - 47.80
- ALEXY, Jack (USA) - 47.96
- GUILIANO, Chris (USA) - 47.98
