Sun Yang Opens 2016 Intl Race Account With A 1:46.3 In 200 Free Heats At Santa Clara

Sun Yang*, the Chinese Olympic 400 and 1500m champion who tested positive for a banned substance in 2014 but was not asked by WADA to actually serve the three months penalty he eventually received, opened his 2016 international race season with a 1:46.34 over 200m freestyle at the USA Pro Swim Series at Santa Clara.

Just 0.03sec shy of the Olympic trials time of the man who shared silver with him in the 200m at London 2012, Park Tae-hwan*, of Korean, Sun pulled out of Olympic trials in China last month as a precaution against further harm to a healed foot injury.

The contrast between the trajectories of  Sun, a swimmer much defended by the Chinese system when it came to a positive doping test, and Park is stark. The Korean, who served an 18-month suspension after a September 2014 positive test for testosterone, is locked out of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games even though his ban ended in March. Korean Olympic Committee rules bar any Korean who tests positive from representing the country for three years after the end of any international suspension. The KOC has been under pressure to rescind the rule.

Park was said to have set aside plans to take his case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne until after a meeting with the KOC this month but he missed appointment and there has been no word since.

Sun, meanwhile, is heading back to best in time for the defence of his Olympic titles.

Sun Yang on the burning deck with Sun

The prime earner for the Chinese Swimming Association, Sun will arrive in Rio tainted by the events of 2014. The journey from London 2012 to Rio 2016 has included: Sun serving a short jail term after driving without a licence (he was charged after he crashed a borrowed Porches into a bus) Sun falling out with his coach and the CSA over “commercial activities” as well spending “too long” away from training with a girlfriend Sun testing positive for Triamterene, a potassium-sparing diuretic used in combination with thiazide diuretics for the treatment of hypertension and edema in May 17, 2014 Sun racing to three gold medals at the Asian Games in September without saying a word about his positive test and with Dr Ba Zhen by his side on the deck even though the Chinese Swimming Association later claimed it had removed his accreditation and the doctor was not a part of the China team (anyone who knows how accreditation systems work – let alone visas for Chinese travellers – Sun being served, beyond missed reporring deadlines, a retrospective three-month suspension that was never actually served Dr Ba Zhen being served a second suspension after WADA interevened on evidence that he had broken the trerms of his first ban by working with Sun on the deck in …

continue reading in source www.swimvortex.com