China’s Yang roars to 2nd Asiad gold

JAKARTA: Chinese heavyweight Sun Yang battered his rivals to create history Monday as the swimming goliath scooped the first-ever Asian Games men’s 800 metres freestyle gold with another monstrous performance.

Greeted like a rock star with high-pitched squeals from a excitable section of female Chinese fans in Jakarta, the triple Olympic champion claimed a runaway victory in a new Games record of seven minutes, 48.36 seconds.

Sun, who blazed to the 200m title at the weekend, uncoiled his rippling two-metre frame to pull away over the second half of the race to leave Japan’s Shogo Takeda and Vietnam’s Nguyen Huy Hoang flailing in his wake.“I was saving some energy for tonight’s relay,” growled Sun, who returns later in the men’s 4x200m freestyle relay.

“The plan was to pick up the pace over the last 200 metres and it went well. That will give me confidence for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.”China topped the medals on day one on Sunday, winning four golds to Japan’s three, led by their talismanic team captain.