SHANGHAI, July 27 (Reuters) - China’s Sun Yang won his first world swimming title on Wednesday when he stormed to the gold medal in the men’s 800 metres freestyle.
The 19-year-old Sun, fast emerging as the heir apparent to the now retired Grant Hackett’s mantle as the world’s dominant long-distance swimmer, clocked seven minutes, 38.57 seconds to win ahead of Canada’s Ryan Cochrane, who took silver in 7:41.86.
Hungary’s Gergo Kis won bronze in 7:44.94.
“I’m happy with today’s performance, especially winning the gold at home,” Sun told reporters.
“I swam at my own rhythm and my last 400 is better than the other swimmers so I sped up at the 700 mark.
“It’s my personal best and it gave me more confidence for the remaining races and next year’s London Olympics.”
Sun’s victory was only the second gold medal won by Chinese men in the pool at the world championships—Zhang Lin won the same event at the 2009 edition in Rome.
The gangly Sun, who stands just under two metres tall, also took silver behind Park Tae-hwan in the 400 freestyle final on Sunday and still has the 1500 freestyle to come in Shanghai, where he should be a hot favourite after he almost broke Hackett’s 10-year-old world record at last year’s Asian Games.
Despite his victory on Wednesday he will need to concentrate on the 1500 next year in London with the 800 freestyle not on the Olympic programme.
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