China’s Pan Zhanle backed up his world record in the relays with a victory all his own Thursday, while American Claire Curzan became the first swimmer to claim two individual gold medals on a starring night for teenagers at the World Aquatics Championships.
The 19-year-old Pan won the men’s 100-meter freestyle at Aspire Dome, four days after swimming the fastest two laps in history with a time of 46.80 seconds in the lead-off leg of China’s gold medal-winning 4×100 free relay team.
He didn’t go quite as fast the second time around, but it was good enough for gold. Pan touched in 47.53 to stamp himself as one of the top contenders heading to the Paris Olympics.
