Sun Yang wins fifth gold at National Games

Sun Yang of Zhejiang province celebrates after winning the men's 1,500-meter freestyle final at the 12th Chinese National Games, in Shenyang, Liaoning province, Sept 11, 2013. [Photo/Xinhua]

SHENYANG, China - Olympic and world champion Sun Yang won the men's 1,500-meter freestyle final on Wednesday to cap his National Games campaign with five gold medals and a bronze.

Sun, who won the 400m and 1500m free at the London Games, was the quickest in the 1500m final in 14 minutes 53.17 seconds, about 22 seconds short of his own world record - 14:31.02.

"I am very tired since it was only three weeks after the World Championships," said Sun. "My form was not as good as it was in London. But I don't need to keep top form all the time."

Hunan's Yang Zhixian and Wang Kecheng came second and third respectively.

The 22-year-old Sun took down the men's 200m freestyle Asian record with a personal best 1:44.47 last Friday. The previous mark was 1:44.80 held by South Korean Park Tae Hwan, who finished behind Sun at the London Games.

Sun won the 400m free in 3:43.68, about two seconds slower than his winning time at the Barcelona World Championships in July, but it is still a world second fastest time this year. He also helped Zhejiang to win two freestyle relay events.

Also on Wednesday, Shanghai's 15-year-old Chen Xinyi was in awesome form as she broke the 50m free national record with 24.61 seconds, which ranked ninth in the world the year. Chen had also won the 100m free and 4X100m medley and freestyle relays.

Shanghai won the women's medley relay in 3:58.43, while Liaoning was second in 4:00.63. Zhejiang came third in 4:02.20.

The men's medley relay title was claimed by Zhejiang in 3:34.92, while Guangdong and Shanghai came second and third respectively.