Sun Yang enjoys comfortable title defense in 1,500m free

Olympic champion Sun Yang built a comfortable lead from the start to defend men's 1,500m freestyle title in Chinese National Swimming Championships here on Saturday.

Sun clocked 15 minutes 1.33 seconds for the title, ranking sixth in world's best of this year. However, the result was more than 30 seconds shy of the world record he set in London Olympic Games two years ago.

"It's the second time for me to have finished a 1,500m course since I had all bans lifted, and I expected a result around 15 minutes," said Sun.

Sun was banned from training, competition and commercial events by national team and Zhejiang College of Sports after being detained for driving without a license last November. The National Championships is his first appearance in competitive match after his ban was lifted and his departing from his long-term coach Zhu Zhigen.

His training was handed over to Zhang Yadong, the vice president of the college and former Chinese head coach.

"He is far from his top level," commented Zhang.

Wang Kecheng of Hunan and Zu Lijun of Chinese Army finished second and third respectively.

Shanghai's Zhou Min was crowned in women's 200m individual medley in 2:10.22, the world's fourth fastest time this year.

Her teammate Chen Xinyi, who got the title in 100m individual medley, finished second with 0.70 seconds later. The third went to another Shanghai swimmer Zhang Sishi.

In other four events, Tang Yi topped women's 50m freestyle in 25.33 seconds. Men's 50m breaststroke champion went to Tianjin's Li Xiang in 28.19 seconds. Hubei's Chen Jie overcame Zhejiang's Fu Yuanhui to win in women's 200m backstroke in 2:09.70. The Zhejiang team claimed the title in men's 4X100m medley relay in 3:39.50.