Swim star Sun Yang seals his fourth National Games gold as Ning Zetao reasserts 100m dominance
China’s top swimmer blitzes the field to take a fourth gold medal in Tianjin
Chinese swim star Sun Yang claimed a fourth gold medal at the National Games of China on Monday when he blitzed the field to take the 800 metre freestyle title.
The 25-year-old added that to his impressive haul at the quadrennial event, which includes the 200m, 400m and 4x200m relay freestyle golds.
Sun took the 800m title in seven minutes, 46.80 seconds, routing second-placed Ji Xinjie of Shandong by over six seconds.
“It was the 102nd gold medal of my career,” said Sun. “But in fact, I focused more on my own performance.
Elsewhere, 2015 world champion Ning Zetao claimed the 100m freestyle in 47.92, the sixth best time in the world this year. Guandong’s Yu Hexin was second in 48.63 and Hou Yujie of Henan third on 49.06.
“I only started to prepare for the Games last May and my focus was the 50m and 100m freestyle,” said Ning. “I was satisfied with the result and my form today.”
In the women’s events, former world bronze medallist Zhang Yufei from Jiangsu surged from behind to claim the 200m butterfly in 2:06.17, and the PLA women’s quartet of Liu Jiayi, Dong Fuwei, Fang Nan and Yan Siyu took the 4x200m free relay title.
Additional reporting: Xinhua