Sun shines in tight title defense

China's long-distance expert Sun Yang retained his 800m freestyle title at the world swimming championships on Wednesday.

The 23-year-old clocked 7 minutes, 39.96 seconds, but was pushed all the way as Italy's Gregorio Paltrinieri swam a new European record at 0.85 sec back while Australia's Mack Horton took bronze.

It was Sun's second gold in Kazan having also retained the 400m freestyle title he won in Barcelona two years ago, but he had to settle for silver to Britain's James Guy in the 200m freestyle final on Tuesday.