Asian Games: Sun Yang’s five-gold dream shattered by Japan in men’s relay
The China superstar powers to victory in the men’s 800m freestyle but falls short in swimming the anchor leg of the 4x200m freestyle final
Japan destroyed Chinese swimming star Sun Yang’s hopes of five gold medals at the Asian Games when they stunned the three-time Olympic champion and his team in the men’s 4x200 metres men’s freestyle relay final.
Sun turned in turned in another power-packed performance to claim his second gold medal of the Games at the Jakarta Aquatic Centre on Monday when he won the men’s 800 metres final earlier in the evening.
And even when he jumped two lengths behind Japan’s Katsuhiro Matsumoto in the anchor leg of the relay later on, it looked only a matter of time over the next four lengths that the two-giant would haul in his rival.
The fluid strokes that made it look as if he was on a practice run in the 800m got more desperate as they turned for home in the relay and while Sun was gaining, Matsumoto did just enough to hold him off and give himself, Naito Ehara, Reo Sakata and Kosuke Hagino victory in a Games record of 7:05.17.
China’s Ji Xinjie, Shang Keyuan Wang Shun and Sun clocked 7:05.45 and third-placed Singapore finished third in 7:14.15, with Olympic butterfly champion Joseph Schooling swimming a brilliant second leg to bring his team into the medals stakes.