China's Sun Yang wipes tears in pool after finishing first in the men's 1500m freestyle swimming final at the 16th Asian Games in Guangzhou, Nov 18, 2010. [Photo/Xinhua]

 

The 19-year-old Chinese swimmer Sun Yang burst into tears Thursday when he saw his time after the men's 1500 meters freestyle final.

Fourteen minutes and 35.43 seconds, which is the new Asian record and only 0.87 seconds slower than the world record set by Australia's Grant Hackett in 2001.

"I was so excited when I saw my time on the screen," sobbed Sun, bronze medallist of the event at the 2009 Rome world championships. "It is the reward of my efforts. My coach and I worked really hard this year."

The teenager led throughout the race to beat South Korean Park Tae-Hwan for the first time at Guangzhou Asiad. Park, who was in good shape and collected three gold medals in 100m, 200m and 400m free, took the silver in 15:01.72.

Zhang Lin, Olympic runner-up of the 400m free, settled for the bronze in 15:22.03.

"I am satisfied with the result," Sun said. "But I still need to improve my skills. Park and Zhang are my arch rivals, and I learned a lot from them."

As a teenager, Sun was not good at hiding his emotions. It was not the first time the teenager boy cried at the Asian Games, and in fact, it was the fourth time.

Sun cried after losing to Park on Sunday's 200m freestyle final, "I wanted to beat him but I couldn't," said the disappointed boy.

The same happened after the 400m free final on Tuesday. "I was so close to him," Sun choked. He clocked the world second best result of 3:42.47, while Park won the gold in 3:41.53.

Sun also cried after China beat Japan to win the men's 4x200m freestyle relay on Wednesday. "I am so happy we won," he couldn't refrain from tears. "I am so relieved now. Before the race there was so much pressure on me."

Though Sun has a lot of tears, he also has a strong mind.

After claiming a bronze in Rome Worlds, Sun trained really hard and made a lot of improvement. He went to Australia for training from February to April this year, and was called "top swimmers in the 1500m freestyle" by famous coach Dennis Cotterell.

Asked about the world record, Sun said:"To break Hackett's world record is my goal, and I will never give up."

"Actually, I made some progress at the Asian Games, and I think it's because I can compete with great swimmers like Park and Zhang, " he said.

"I will keep working hard after the Asian Games, and I hope I can achieve good results at 2011 Shanghai worlds and 2012 London Olympic Games," said Sun.

Thursday was the last competition day of swimming at the Guangzhou Asiad.

Tao Li took Singapore's first swimming gold here by winning the women's 50m butterfly.