China’s swimming prodigy Yu Zidi bags third gold in Asian Games record

The 13-year-old beat the previous 400m Asian Games record, set by China’s Ye Shiwen in 2014, by about 4.5 seconds.China’s 13-year-old swimming sensation Yu Zidi has completed a hat-trick of Asian Games golds with a dominant victory in the 400m individual medley, two years before the Los Angeles Olympics.The schoolgirl powered home in an Asian Games-record 4 minutes 28.56 seconds (04:28.56) on Wednesday to make it a clean sweep of her three individual events in Tokyo, following victories in the 200m butterfly and 200m individual medley, also in games-record times.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemslist 1 of 4India’s Mandhana breaks T20 record in Asian Games cricket semifinal winlist 2 of 4Who is Yu Zidi, China’s 13-year-old swimming sensation?list 3 of 4Afghan cyclist who escaped Taliban wins Asian Games silver medallist 4 of 4‘Disgraceful’: Did India bully umpires to win Japan T20 cricket match?end of listShe beat the previous 400m games record set by China’s Ye Shiwen in 2014 by approximately 4.5 seconds.It was the fourth-fastest time in the world this year, with world record-holder Summer McIntosh owning the top three.With the next Olympics two years away, Yu is shaping up to be a major medal contender at the 2028 Los Angeles Games.Last year, she became the youngest medallist at the World Aquatics Championships, where she won bronze for China’s relay team at the age of 12, and has since been earmarked for success in the swimming world.At the same championship, Yu finished fourth by a small margin in three individual events.In March, the teen sensation built on her growing reputation with a 200m butterfly victory over seven-time American Olympic medallist Regan Smith at the China-swimming-open" class="entity-link entity-event" data-entity-id="208474" data-entity-type="event">China Swimming Open.At the Asian Games, Yu has dominated the pool and showed another glimpse of her immense talent in the 400m individual medley, where she took the lead from the start and finished 3.95 seconds clear of silver medallist Ke Wenxi of China, with Japan’s Mio Narita finishing third.