Sun splits with coach, looks ahead to worlds
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E-mail Xinhua, July 4, 2013
Olympic and world champion Sun Yang is preparing for the Barcelona world championships without his long-time mentor Zhu Zhigen following their falling out.
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Sun Yang has splitted with coach Zhu Zhigen. |
Presently, Sun is training in China's Hong Kong, under former Chinese head coach Zhang Yadong.
"I will get rid of all distractions and go all out to prepare for the worlds," the Olympic 1,500-meter freestyle winner wrote on his microblog.
Zhang is pleased with Sun's training. "He is focused and finding back his form," Zhang said in an telephone interview yesterday.
Sun became the first Chinese man to win an Olympic swimming title in London last year. He set a world record in the 1,500 to win at the Shanghai worlds in 2011 where he also triumphed in the 800 free.
But he has only registered for the 400 and 1,500 freestyle at the July 19-August 4 world championships.
"Sun Yang has only registered for two events. We are concerned that he will not be able to perform well as he has lacked systematic training for the past six months," Chinese swimming association deputy head Shang Xiutang was quoted as saying earlier.
"We are even not so sure about these two events now."
But Zhang insisted that the registrations may likely change as Sun gets into shape for the Barcelona event.
The 22-year-old, who rocketed to join China's top sporting stars, basketball giant Yao Ming and tennis queen Li Na, once again became fodder for headline writers at the beginning of this year following a public row with coach Zhu.
Sun refused to train after he fell in love with an air hostess and threatened to split with Zhu when the coach told him to refrain from the romantic relationship.
Though the two parties put on a gesture of reconciliation under the mediation of the country's swimming authorities, Sun once again requested, and won approval for, a split with Zhu after 10 years of training with him.
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