Taiwanese butterfly king Wang Guanhong wins gold in Nagoya Asian Games 200 butterfly, setting a record high

Wang Guanhong. (File photo, provided by the Chinese Olympic Games)

"Taiwan's Butterfly King" Wang Guanhong won the gold medal in the men's 200-meter butterfly swimming final of the Nagoya Asian Games today in 1:55.05, winning the first men's Asian Games gold medal in Taiwan's history.

The 24-year-old Wang Guanhong is the holder of three national records in Taiwan's butterfly style. He won the silver medal in the 200 butterfly at the last Asian Games in Hangzhou, ending the 25-year Asian Games medal drought for Taiwanese male swimmers. The previous male swimmer to win a medal in the Asian Games was his coach Huang Zhiyong. In addition to winning medals in the Asian Games, Wang Guanhong has competed in the Tokyo Olympics and the Paris Olympics and is my country's most competitive swimmer.

Wang Guanhong's goal in this Asian Games is to stand on the podium in the 200 butterfly. He has already competed in the 100 butterfly before, and finally swam 52.33 seconds, ranking 8th. In this morning's preliminaries, Wang Guanhong was ranked in the 5th waterway of Group 3. He finally hit the wall with a time of 1:59.40. He advanced to the finals as first in the group and second in the overall ranking. His score was second only to the Chinese player Wang Xizhe's 1:59.28. He was expected to have a chance to stand on the podium in the evening finals.

Wang Guanhong was ranked in the 5th waterway in the evening final. He maintained the lead at the beginning and maintained his advantage all the way. In the end, he successfully pulled away and touched the wall first in 1:55.05, winning the gold medal and becoming the first male swimmer in Taiwan.