That's just one second short of Hackett's record of 14:34!
YouTube - sun yang, won 1500 mt freestyle final.. asian games 2010
swimnews.com/.../8232
Sun Yang (CHN) has taken a sledgehammer to his own personal standards all week at the Asian Games, medalling a touch away from Park Tae-hwan (KOR) in the 200m and 400m free, but over 30 laps he almost took a sledgehammer to the only surviving men's world record from pre-shiny suit times.
Grant Hackett (AUS) remains king of the 1,500m clock, on 14:34.56. The closest to him had been a shiny suited 14:37.28 by US-based Tunisian Oussama Mellouli, the man who in Beijing, by 0.69sec, prevented Hackett from becoming the first man in swimming history to win the same Olympic crown at three Games.
Now the closest to Hackett is Sun - on 14:35.43, an Asian record. And his last 100m: 54.40! Sun is the only swimmer in 2010 to swim faster in an event than the best effort in 2009.
Very impressive. I've mentioned before that I think one of the reasons Hackett's record hasn't been broken is that competition at the major events like the Olympics and Worlds has become very tight. Making finals requires swimming very close to 15:00 and it's difficult to come back from this kind of prelim swim and swim faster in finals. I believe the Asian Games 1500 free was timed finals, so that might be part of the reason Sun was able to swim so fast. Not to take anything away from his amazing swim!
Very impressive. I've mentioned before that I think one of the reasons Hackett's record hasn't been broken is that competition at the major events like the Olympics and Worlds has become very tight. Making finals requires swimming very close to 15:00 and it's difficult to come back from this kind of prelim swim and swim faster in finals. I believe the Asian Games 1500 free was timed finals, so that might be part of the reason Sun was able to swim so fast. Not to take anything away from his amazing swim!
