A Pan-oply of speed

Chinese swimming prodigy smashes own world record to win coveted sprint gold in epic fashion

Sure, it's a little early to make such bold proclamations, but freestyle swimmer Pan Zhanle's Paris heroics have immediately thrust his name into conversations about China's sporting immortals.

By breaking the world record in a sprint event long dominated by Western athletes, the teen sensation has left fans marveling at the emergence of a new, waterborne Liu Xiang, after Pan snatched up the coveted gold medal in the 100m freestyle final in the Paris pool on Wednesday, bringing back fond memories of Liu's epic 110m hurdles win at the Athens Games 20 years ago.

The magnificence of Pan's incredible 46.40-second world record swim, which secured Team China's first swimming gold medal in Paris on the fifth day of the Games has, as many claimed, also matched track legend Su Bingtian's feat of making the 100m final at the Tokyo Games three years ago.