Hungarian Teenager Milak Smashes Phelps 200m Butterfly World Record
24th July 2019
Triple Olympic champion Sun had already retained his 200 and 400m crown in Gwangju but he finished a distant sixth in the 800m final behind Italian Gregorio Paltrinieri
- Chinese giant Sun Yang suffered defeat Wednesday after a draining week in which he has clashed with rival swimmers over doping allegations, while Hungarian teenager Kristof Milak smashed Michael Phelps's 200m butterfly world record
- A brutal schedule looked to have taken its toll on Sun, who has been involved in angry confrontations with Australian Mack Horton and Britain's Duncan Scott after they snubbed him at two different medal ceremonies
- An 11-time world champion, Sun accused Horton of "disrespecting China" by refusing to step onto the podium for the winner's national anthem after the 400m final at the weekend
GWANGJU, China-
Chinese giant Sun Yang suffered defeat Wednesday after a draining week in which
he has clashed with rival swimmers over doping allegations, while Hungarian
teenager Kristof Milak smashed Michael Phelps's 200m butterfly world record.
Triple Olympic
champion Sun had already retained his 200 and 400m crown in Gwangju but he
finished a distant sixth in the 800m final behind Italian Gregorio Paltrinieri,
who claimed gold in seven minutes, 39.27 seconds from Norway's Henrik
Christiansen.
A brutal schedule
looked to have taken its toll on Sun, who has been involved in angry
confrontations with Australian Mack Horton and Britain's Duncan Scott after
they snubbed him at two different medal ceremonies in response to bombshell
claims made in a FINA doping panel report.
The leaked document
alleged Sun allowed vials of blood to be smashed with a hammer after he was
visited by testers last year.
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"I was
exhausted," said the Chinese idol. "My legs and arms felt sore -- the
hardest part is juggling a tight schedule, which I will have to do at the 2020
Tokyo Olympics."
An 11-time world
champion, Sun accused Horton of "disrespecting China" by refusing to
step onto the podium for the winner's national anthem after the 400m final at
the weekend.
And Sun, who has
complained privately of being shunned by other athletes in Korea, went eyeball
to eyeball with Scott after Tuesday's 200m medal presentation.
The Briton ignored
Sun's offer of a handshake and would not join him on the top step for photos,
sparking a fiery reaction from the Chinese star.
The 27-year-old
wagged his finger in Scott's face and yelled: "You loser, I win!"
Both men received
formal warnings from FINA, as did Horton, but several athletes have come out in
support of their silent protests.
After taking bronze
in Wednesday's 200m fly, South African Chad le Clos said: "What Duncan did
was fantastic. He didn't shake his hand and I respect that -- great move by
him."
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Horton called Sun a
"drug cheat" at the 2016 Rio Olympics in reference to a three-month
ban Sun had previously served for taking a stimulant he has always maintained
was approved medication for a heart problem.
The Australian
reignited their war of words with his snub at the weekend, prompting Chinese
state-run media to brand him a "clown" and online trolls to leave
death threats on his social media accounts.
Meanwhile, Milak
stormed to gold in the men's 200m fly, clocking a blistering 1:50.73 to shatter
Phelps's 10-year-old mark by almost eight tenths.
Astonishingly,
silver medallist Daiya Seto of Japan touched more than three seconds behind the
19-year-old Hungarian.