China swim king Sun Yang eyes Asiad sweep

JAKARTA: Brash, belligerent and often painted as swimming’s big, bad wolf, Chinese giant Sun Yang will be looking to savage his rivals at the Asian Games.

The triple Olympic champion is poised to swim the men’s 200m, 400m, 800m and 1,500m freestyle in Jakarta – and it would take an astonishing upset to deny him a gold medal sweep.

No shrinking violet, Sun Yang triggered a diplomatic row at the 2014 Asian Games by slamming Japan’s national anthem as “ugly” after being ambushed by Kosuke Hagino in the 200m freestyle in South Korea.

Sun Yang was banned for three months in 2014 for taking trimetazidine, prescribed for a heart condition and which had only been included on the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) list of illegal substances four months earlier.

Rival swimmers tore into Sun Yang at the Rio Olympics in 2016, where Australian Mack Horton labelled him a “drug cheat” and Frenchwoman Camille Lacourt sniffed that Sun Yang “pees purple”.

Sun Yang accused then escalated the war of words by accusing Horton of “dirty tactics” after losing his Olympic 400m title to the Australian.

Prowling the pool deck in bling gold headphones before his races, the Chinese star could face less resistance in his bid to win a fistful of gold in Jakarta with Hagino failing to qualify for Japan in the 200m freestyle.

“I can’t relax for a second,” admitted the 26-year-old Sun Yang, who completed a hattrick of 400m world titles last year in Budapest.

“If you stop pushing, that’s when the problems start,” he told Chinese media. Rest and recuperation can wait.”

China’s support cast is led by teenager Li Bingjie, who won medals in the women’s 400m and 800m freestyle in Hungary, and charismatic backstroker Fu Yuanhui, a double Asian Games winner in 2014. Wang Shun, bronze medallist behind Michael Phelps and Hagino in the 200m individual medley at the Rio Olympics, will have hopes of upsetting his Japanese rival.

But Hagino, who captured Olympic gold in the 400m medley, will be favourite to complete another Asian Games double, despite having countryman Daiya Seto breathing down his neck.

Japan also have high hopes for Rikako Ikee, who swept to gold in the women’s 100m butterfly at last week’s Pan Pacific championships.

The 18-year-old also took silver in the 200m freestyle in Tokyo, two years out from the 2020 Olympics in her home city. Ikee will contest the 50m and 100m butterfly, 50m and 100m freestyle and at least two relays at the Asian Games.

Japan could sweep the men’s breaststroke through Yasuhiro Koseki and Ippei Watanabe, with Kazakhstan’s Dmitriy Balandin going off the boil since claiming a shock Olympic title in the 200m. — AFP