Asian Games: Pan Zhanle says ‘fire inside’ fuels his successful 100m freestyle title defence

The 22-year-old admits rival Kim Young-beom saying, ‘He [Pan Zhanle] is intimidating, but I don’t think he is unbeatable’ spurs him to victory

Pan Zhanle admitted he had a “fire burning inside” during his successful title defence of the men’s 100m freestyle at the Asian Games.

Motivated by a rival’s claim that he was not unbeatable, the 22-year-old “controlled his anger” to overturn two South Korean swimmers in the final 10 metres to snatch gold.

A day later on Monday, swimming the third leg in a team with Xu Haibo, Fei Liwei and Zhang Zhanshuo, he led China to its first men’s 4x200m freestyle relay Asian Games gold in 16 years, breaking the team’s own Asian record.