Sun Yang wins in national swimming championship

Olympic champion Sun Yang easily won the the men's 200m freestyle Saturday at the Chinese national swimming championships.

The 21-year-old Sun, who won gold in 400m and 1,500m frees at the London Olympics, touched in one minute 45.94 seconds, 0.99 seconds behind his 200m swim in London, but it was still three seconds faster than the silver medallist Li Yunqi of Henan.

"I really feel a little tired because this is my second event in September, the previous one was the National University Games in Tianjin," Sun said.

"I hope the media and fans can leave some room for me so that I can concentrate on my training and achieve better results in the future," he added.

In stark contrast, Liu Zige, the women's 200m butterfly winner in Beijing Olympics and the current world record holder, failed to make the final in the 200m fly.

"I will try to find the problems and then remedy them," said Liu.

A total of 619 swimmers from all over China are competing in over 40 events of the championship, which runs from September 22 to 27.