China's new men's 100 metres freestyle world record holder Pan Zhanle posted the fastest time of 47.82 seconds in the heats of the event at the world championships on Wednesday.
The 19-year-old headed the list of qualifiers for the semifinals later on Wednesday. Italy's Alessandro Miressi (47.94sec) and Hungary's Nandor Nemeth (48.03sec) were second and third fastest respectively.
Pan had on Sunday timed 46.80sec to shave 0.06sec off the previous record of 46.86 achieved by Romanian David Popovici at the European championships in Rome in August 2022.
Pan achieved the new mark leading off his team during the 4x100m freestyle relay to set up teammates Ji Xinjie, Zhang Zhanshuo and Wang Haoyu to seal gold for China in 3:11.08.