Amid roaring home support at the 2025 Chengdu World Games, the Chinese women's finswimming team shattered their own world record in the surface relay 4×50-meter event, clocking an electrifying 1:07.99 to clinch gold.
The quartet of Shu Chengjing, Xu Yichuan, Xie Wenmin, and Hu Yaoyao led from start to finish, building on their dramatic comeback victory in the 4×100m relay the day before. Their seamless baton exchanges—honed over two weeks of intense practice—trimmed precious tenths of seconds off their Birmingham 2022 benchmark.
"We're so happy and surprised to achieve such great results in our first race together," Xu said, celebrating her fourth World Games appearance. "The crowd's energy gave us wings in the pool."
Germany, fresh off gold in the men's 4×50m, secured another relay win in the surface 4×100m, while Ukraine and South Korea rounded out the podium. In individual races, Hungary's Nandor Kiss and Szebasztian Szabo Gyoergyei set new world marks in the men's 200m and bi-fins 50m, and Ukraine's Sofiia Hrechko claimed the women's 400m with a record 3:11.88.
Overall, the two-day finswimming showcase saw seven world records and nine World Games records fall. Hungary topped the medal table with five golds, followed by Germany (three golds) and Ukraine (two golds). The Chinese team finished with two golds, one silver, and one bronze, energized by their home-field triumphs.
Reference(s):
China set a new finswimming relay world record at Chengdu World Games
cgtn.com
