Yan's tribute T-shirt inspires

Talent and training helped Yan Zibei set a breaststroke record at the ongoing national championships here - but his gold medal effort was at least partially inspired by pop idol Hua Chenyu.

On Tuesday, the 23-year-old Yan clocked 26.96 seconds to set the national mark in the semifinal of the 50m breaststroke, just 0.02 seconds slower than the Asian record. He matched that time in Wednesday's final to claim the gold.

Yan's accomplishment became one of the hottest topics on Chinese social media, thanks in part to the Hua Chenyu T-shirt he donned ahead of the final.