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Pan Zhanle can’t repeat Olympic relay victory over US – but Yu Zidi, 12, has medal chance
Yu swims in 400 metres medley at World Championships, while China’s team fail to reach relay final a year after ending American monopoly
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Pan Zhanle suffered more disappointment at the World Aquatics Championships on Sunday, when China failed to reach the men’s 4x100 metres medley relay final – the event in which he shocked the world at the Olympics.
The heroics of Pan on the final freestyle leg at the Paris Games last August had ended a decades-long American monopoly in this discipline.
But on Sunday morning in Singapore, a repeat proved beyond a team that included Pan and China’s other leading light, Qin Haiyang, who was also in that Paris quartet and had collected two gold medals and one bronze in his breaststroke events at this meet.
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Pan, Qin, Wang Shun and Xu Fang were only ninth fastest in the heats, from which eight qualified, as they clocked three minutes, 32.69 seconds – behind South Korea and more than five seconds slower than their Paris time.
Australia, who were 11th, missed out too, while the United States quartet qualified fastest for the final in 3:29.65.
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