Performance of the Week: Chinese Swimmers Break Three World Records In Single Race

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Photo Courtesy: Rob Schumacher- USA TODAY Sports

The 2016 Paralympic Games kicked off this week in Rio de Janeiro in record-breaking fashion, but there was one event in particular that stood out among the rest. The men’s 200 free S2 was held on the fourth night of the meet, and during the finals of the event three separate world records were broken by a duo of Chinese swimmers.

China’s Liankang Zuo had actually broken the world record in the men’s 200 free S2 during the prelims of the event, taking a huge 23 seconds off of the record when he touched in 3:49.37 in the morning (the old record was 4:12.76). During finals of the event, his teammate Benying Liu went 3:41.54 to shave close to eight seconds more off of the world record and grab the gold medal. He was joined on the podium by Zou who claimed silver in 3:42.58, with Ukrainian Serhii Palamarchuk also going under the world record from prelims when he touched in 3:43.69 for bronze.

If that record swapping wasn’t impressive enough, however, the duo of of Zou and Liu also managed to break the 50, 100, and 200 S2 world records throughout the race. While Liu took gold in 3:41.54 to get the overall record, Zou was first at the 50, touching in 50.65. That shattered the old world record of 58.43 by almost eight seconds that was previously held by Russian Dmitri Kokarev to give the Chinese swimmer the record. Liu, however, had managed to catch Zou by the 100 mark, splitting a 1:46.63 at the 100 meter mark to break the world record in that distance. That smashed the previous record of 2:03.71 from 2012 by his teammate Yang Yang (who finished fourth in the final of the 200). With three world records in the span of less than four minutes, the men’s 200 free S2 is sure to go down as one of the most memorable performances from the entire 2016 Paralympic Games.

Congratulations Benying Liu and Liankang Zou on earning Swimming World’s Performance of the Week!

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