Barely pausing for breath

Sun shines

Spearheading China's surge was three-time Olympic champion Sun Yang, who swept all four individual freestyle titles (200, 400, 800 and 1500m) in Indonesia, as well as adding two relay silvers (4x100 and 4x200 free) to his collection

The dominance earned him the 2018 Male Pacific Rim Swimmer of the Year award, named by US-based magazine Swimming World.

More satisfying for Sun, however, was seeing his technical improvements bear fruit at the worlds in his hometown.

A distance specialist in the 50m pool, Sun signed up for the men's 4x200 free relay as his only event in Hangzhou and helped the team land bronze in 6:47.53 behind Brazil and runner-up Russia.

Sun attributed his superb third leg of 1:41.25 to his efforts in fine-tuning his starts, turns and underwater kicking as he bids to gain a small but critical advantage in speed for individual races.

"My goal to excel in multiple events requires me to pursue all possible improvements, especially the technical details, which used to be my weakness," said Sun, who won Olympic golds in 200, 400 and 1500 free at the 2012 London and 2016 Rio Games.

"To test my training in short-pool races and even swimming individual medley in drills will help me discover new areas where I can push for greater speed."

A race over 25m lengths involves more turns, push-offs and underwater kicks than in an Olympic-standard 50m pool, thus offering more opportunities to gauge technical refinements, according to Sun's long-term mentor, Zhu Zhigen.

"His goal is to make history at the Olympics in Tokyo, but to do so he needs to learn from the experience this time and continue to improve his endurance at the winter training camp," said Zhu.

With youth no longer on his side, the 27-year-old has shifted his focus from distance to speed, setting his sights on defending his 200 title, recapturing the 400 won by Australia's Mack Horton at the 2016 Rio Games and winning the 800's Olympic debut in Tokyo.

Zhu will soon be joined in Kunming by Aussie coach Denis Cotterell as they step up Sun's preparations for the long-course worlds in Gwangju, South Korea in July.