BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Olympic champion Sun Yang was fastest in the 400-meter freestyle heats on the opening day of the traditional pool events at the swimming world championships Sunday.
For Chinese teammate Ye Shiwen, it was a different story.
Ye, the surprise winner of both women’s individual medleys at last year’s London Olympics as a 16-year-old, had to settle for second in the 200 IM prelims behind Katinka Hosszu of Hungary.
Hosszu clocked 2 minutes, 8.45 seconds — a nearly unheard of time for heats and one that would have earned her a bronze medal in London. Ye, swimming in the next lane, touched in 2:10.20.
Sun led the 400 in 3:44.67 and Ryan Cochrane of Canada was second with 3:45.74. Olympic silver medalist Park Tae-hwan skipped this meet.
