China's Qin wins ‘miracle' second breaststroke gold at swim worlds
SINGAPORE : China's roaring Qin Haiyang won his second breaststroke gold of the Singapore swimming world championships on Friday, edging a 200m nailbiter.
World record holder Qin touched the wall in 2:07.41, ahead of Japan's Ippei Watanabe (2:07.70) and Caspar Corbeau of the Netherlands (2:07.73).
The 26-year-old Qin won the 100m breaststroke earlier in the week but he celebrated his second victory as if it were his first.
He punched the air before whipping up the delighted Chinese fans in the arena, who screamed him on to a thrilling victory.
Qin started the race in lane eight after qualifying slowest from the semi-finals but it made no difference as he regained the world title he won in 2023 in style.
'Amazing,' said Qin. 'Have you heard of the lane eight miracle?
'I did not know if I was second or third, I just heard 'whoo', so I knew I had won.'
The lead changed hands several times throughout the race, with American AJ Pouch and Russian Kirill Prigoda also challenging.
In the end it was Qin who got the decisive touch ahead of Watanabe, giving the Chinese swimmer his fourth medal of the championships in Singapore.
Qin is returning to form after a difficult time at last year's Paris Olympics, where he did not even make the final of the 200m breaststroke.
His preparations for the Games were thrown into turmoil when he was implicated in a major doping scandal months before the Games.
A report named Qin among 23 Chinese swimmers who had tested positive for a prescription heart drug ahead of the pandemic-delayed 2021 Tokyo Olympics.
They were not sanctioned after the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) accepted the argument of Chinese authorities that the positive tests were caused by contaminated food.
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