Sun Yang issues defiant statement after FINA World Championships

Controversial Chinese swimmer Sun Yang has called Mack Horton a “hater” but also insists he is the one actually standing up for athlete’s rights.

Sun Yang has had his critics, some would say they are justified, after all the Chinese swimmer is nothing if not controversial but after the World Championships he is the one who had been left laughing.

Australian star Mack Horton and British swimmer Duncan Scott protested hard against him after the 400m and 200m freestyle finals but in the case of Horton and the Australian team, they were left with egg on their faces after Shayna Jack tested positive to a banned substance.

Sun, who is due to face the Court of Arbitration for Sport in September as world doping authority WADA seek to ban him for life, after he had vials of his blood smashed with a hammer due to irregularities with doping officers and their accreditation.

In Gwangju at the World Championships Sun still left with the golds in both the 200 and 400m freestyle but he also left with the last word on the storm that followed him and a message for main rivals like Horton and Scott.

“There are millions of swimmers in the world. A couple of guys won’t influence me,” Sun told the South China Morning Post.

“I don’t want to get into a fight with those haters. Mack will then just answer back and the whole thing escalates and turns into a tit-for-tat.”

Mack Horton famously refused to stand on the podium with Sun Yang.

And while Sun ignored the taunts of Horton, who in at the Rio Olympics in 2016 called him a drug cheat before beating him to gold on the 400 metres, Sun again claimed he is not only clean but feels vindicated enough to call himself an athlete’s athlete and that his destruction of those blood vials was a perfectly legitimate action.

“I think FINA has already made a statement to say that I didn’t break any rules and I obeyed all the rules and what I did was to defend the rights of all athletes because if someone is not qualified to take blood, who knows what can happen,” Sun said of FINA clearing him for his actions after drug testers came to his house and a stand off ensued after it emerged two of them were not properly accredited and according to Sun there were further issues with the paperwork.

Sun Yang takes photos on the pool deck in Gwangju.

Sun insisted he was “protecting each and every athlete” by refusing to let what he called “unlicensed” testers take his blood.

“What I say happened is proven and nothing I’ve said is fake. I have defended myself and I won’t tolerate any disrespect from other athletes.”

His coach, a legend in Australian swimming, Denis Cotterell, said to AFP: “he’s not a drug cheat,” earlier in the week.

“He’s tested year in, year out. You can’t have the performances he’s had over the years without doing the work.”