Sun’s win caps Chinese dominance in pool at Asiad

INCHEON — Olympic champion Sun Yang (picture) powered to victory in his signature 1,500m freestyle event, asserting his primacy over South Korean rival Park Tae-hwan and capping Chinese domination in the Asian Games pool yesterday.

Sun led from the get-go and finished five seconds ahead of silver medalist Kohei Yamamoto but 18 seconds behind his world record time. China’s Wang Kecheng was third, while Park came fourth, 22.4s off Sun’s pace.

Sun’s third gold of the Games was one fewer than Japan’s Kosuke Higano, who shocked Sun in the 200m freestyle on opening night last Saturday.

“There were both achievements and disappointments, namely losing the 200. But I’m going to train hard for next year’s world championships and see even better results,” Sun said.

At the end of the seventh day, with 196 of 439 gold medals awarded, China topped the medal tally with 91 golds, followed by host South Korea (31) and Japan (30).

The pool competition was billed as the Sun versus Park show, but became a showcase for the enduring political and sporting rivalry between China and Japan.

Chinese men took 22 golds to Japan’s 12, Kazakhstan claimed three, and Singapore it’s first men’s swimming gold in 32 years. But despite political tension between China and Japan — Chinese fans booed Japanese swimmers, and China’s social media lit up with anti-Japanese commentary — there seemed to be no apparent animosity between swimmers from the two nations.

Though strong in the heats, Japanese swimmers again failed to come through in the finals and were repeatedly relegated to second and third place. Losing their Asian Games title to China in the men’s 4x100m medley relay lent an especially bitter ending to the evening.

The Japanese were beaten by a mere 0.33s by China to end the evening, with South Korea — anchored by Park — coming third.

Park, who was presented with a cake by Sun to mark his 25th birthday on Saturday, said he would not let the lack of Asiad success hold him back. He ended the meet with one silver and five bronzes.

“I trained really hard, but it’s a shame I didn’t achieve greats results in the Asian Games,” he said. “However, I believe this was a great opportunity and a great experience for the future.” AP