Swim star Sun Yang threatens legal action over doping report

BEIJING: Chinese swimming star Sun Yang threatened legal action against a British newspaper Sunday over claims that he faced a lifetime ban after allegedly clashing with anti-doping testers and smashing a vial of blood with a hammer.

The 27-year-old, who has won Olympic gold in the 200m, 400m and 1,500m freestyle and is also a multiple world champion, strongly refuted the accusations contained in The Sunday Times.

The newspaper alleged that a confrontation took place and Sun — who was banned for three months in 2014 for taking a stimulant — missed an out-of-competition test on September 4 at his home in Zhejiang province.

“A clash with anti-doping testers ended in him and his security guard using a hammer to smash a sealed vial containing the swimmer’s blood,” The Sunday Times reported.

After the story broke, Sun’s lawyer Zhang Qihuai issued a statement saying that the newspaper had “a malign intention” and “severely damaged Sun Yang’s reputation and violated his privacy”.

“We reserve the right to file a lawsuit against the relevant international media which reported the incident,” the statement added, according to the state-run Xinhua news agency.The statement stressed that a doping panel for FINA ruled in Sun’s favour on January 3 and said that testers for IDTM had breached several rules.