China's Sun Yang hits out at critics of doping ban as he returns to action with gold medal
'I don't understand why people pay so much attention to this' he says after 400m win
Sun Yang hit back at the criticism stemming from his doping ban after defending his world title in the 400-meter freestyle at the swimming world championships Sunday.
“For doping cases I don’t understand why the media pay so much attention to this,” Sun said through a translator. “Around the world when China has good results people always think something bad. We are training as hard as all athletes in other countries. There is absolutely no doubt about our performances. There are doping cases in other countries, too.
“I don’t understand why in the Chinese case the media pay so much attention. I think it’s a lack of respect,” Sun added. “As athletes we are working very hard and sometimes we have [injuries] and take things we don’t know about. Sometimes we make a mistake. Don’t treat us as the enemy.”
The doping case appears to have slowed down Sun a bit. For the first half of Sunday’s race, James Guy of Britain was ahead of him and on world-record pace.
But Sun surged ahead when it counted and the current Olympic champion won in 3:42.58. He climbed the podium wearing shoes with flashing lights on the soles. Guy took second, 1.17 behind, and Canadian veteran Ryan Cochrane was third, 2.01 back.
