The gloves are off in one of swimming’s most bitter rivalries, with Australia’s Mack Horton protesting controversial Chinese star Sun Yang’s 400m freestyle victory at the world titles in South Korea.
Sun pipped Olympic champion Horton by 0.73 of a second to claim his fourth-straight 400m freestyle world title at Sunday’s opening night of the eight-day championships. But Horton made it clear he was not happy Sun had been allowed to compete, refusing to shake hands or stand on the medal podium with the three-time Olympic champion.
Horton collected his silver medal but then stood back and refused to acknowledge Sun who stood with bronze medallist Gabriele Detti of Italy on the podium.
The controversy almost overshadowed a golden first night for Australia with Ariarne Titmus upsetting American great Katie Ledecky in the 400m freestyle and the women’s 4x100m freestyle relay team triumphing.
Sun was surprisingly cleared to contest the titles while waiting to appear in September at a court of arbitration for sport hearing. The 10-time world champion will answer charges of smashing vials of his blood with a hammer during a clash last year with testers.
Sun celebrated wildly after the 400m win, splashing water and holding four fingers up to indicate his streak. But Horton was clearly not impressed, taking a swipe at Sun via the media before his podium protest.
Asked how he felt after a gutsy silver-medal finish, Horton said: “Frustration is probably it. I think you know in what respect.”
Asked to describe his rivalry with Sun, Horton said: “I think you know what the rivalry is like. His actions and how it has been handled speak louder than anything I will ever say.”
Sun returned serve in a post-race press conference, accusing Horton of being disrespectful.
“I was aware that the Australian athlete had dissatisfaction and personal feelings towards me,” he said. “It was unfortunate because disrespecting me is OK but disrespecting China was very unfortunate and I felt sorry about that.”
It marks the latest round in Horton’s row with Sun whom he dismissed as a “drug cheat” at the Rio Games before upsetting the three-time Olympic champion to claim 400m freestyle gold in Brazil.
Sun has been a controversial figure since serving a secret three-month doping ban in 2014. The Chinese swimmer was again embroiled in scandal when he was accused of objecting to an out-of-competition test last September at his Zhejiang home before the vials of blood were allegedly destroyed by a hammer.
World governing body Fina opted not to punish Sun amid claims the testers had not shown adequate identification but the World Anti-Doping Agency lodged an appeal to CAS.
Horton could at least take solace from his silver medal finish at a world titles that, by rights, he shouldn’t be contesting. He failed to qualify for an individual event at last month’s world titles trials but was selected for the championships thanks to head coach Jacco Verhaeren’s discretionary powers.
Meanwhile, Titmus became the first Australian woman to claim the world 400m title since Tracey Wickham in 1978 after pulling off an upset victory that snapped Ledecky’s staggering winning streak.
Titmus clocked a Commonwealth record three minutes, 58.76 seconds on the opening night of the eight-day world titles in Gwangju, South Korea, on Sunday to upstage the once untouchable Ledecky.
The American had not been beaten in 400m, 800m or 1500m freestyle at a major international meet since 2012 until the 18-year-old pulled off one of the great boilovers.
Yet Titmus’ hard marking coach Dean Boxall still found fault with the landmark swim.
“I think she could have executed it a little bit better. It was a good swim, of course … but it could have been better,” he said.
“I thought she nearly missed an opportunity there.”
Still, Titmus was confident she had done enough for Ledecky to take her seriously as a threat ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Ledecky had refused to speak specifically about Titmus ahead of the titles despite the world No.2 ranked teenager’s impressive form, stonewalling reporters by claiming “everyone was a threat”.
Titmus reckoned that may now have changed.
“Now hopefully she is excited that she now has a battle with me,” Titmus said.
However, Boxall warned Titmus’ win may come at a price.
He believed a “pissed off” Ledecky would now be out for vengeance in her other two events in South Korea against Titmus – the 200m and 800m freestyle.
“She looks pissed off, angry. She’s going to come back,” he said of the American.
“She’ll be like a caged tiger coming out. Is it great for Arnie to win? Yeah, sure.
“But what does it do for Ledecky? Ledecky is still the Olympic champion, she’s the world record holder – Arnie is still the underdog.”
However, Australian head coach Jacco Verhaeren believed Titmus had finally reduced world record holder Ledecky to mere mortal status with the victory.
“It shows that she’s human and has to work for her results. She’s a great competitor, all respect for Katie but for Australia, it’s great news,” he said.
The usually ever cheerful Ledecky admitted she was hurting from the loss after finishing in 3:59.97 – well off her world record of 3:56.46 set at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
“She ran me down. This stings a little, it’s unfamiliar and different,” she said.