China and Australia are in a state of open conflict over a former Olympic swimmer and coach’s insinuations that Pan Zhanle doped to win his 100-meter freestyle race by a body length.

The Chinese state’s response to Australian Brett Hawke’s claim that it was ‘not humanly possible to beat that field’ as Pan had, and that the swim was ‘not real life,’ came through the Chinese social media site Weibo.

One commentator on the site said: ‘They [China] have trained and have the corresponding talent. Australia can’t produce it, so they blame China.’ Another insisted: ‘Pan swam well, and… the others did not swim to their best level, so the two added up to one body length.’

Pan claimed he was being blanked by swimmers from other countries. ‘I said “hi” to [Kyle] Chalmers [who came second] but he totally ignored me.’ Chalmers responded: ‘No issues from my end.’

Pan Zhanle won gold in the men’s 100m freestyle final after setting a new world record with a time of 46.40 seconds, 1.08 seconds ahead of Chalmers, in a pool judged slow because it is shallow. This led to female swimmer Zhang Yufei facing awkward questions after earning bronze in the women’s 200 meters butterfly. She said: ‘Why are Chinese athletes questioned when they swim fast, but no one dares to question [Michael] Phelps or [Katie] Ledecky?’