- Swimmer eyeing gold in 200m, 400m and 800m freestyle events at Olympic Games in Japan this summer
- Court of Arbitration for Sport yet to rule on Wada’s appeal for out of competition doping test
China's triple Olympic champion swimmer Sun Yang has been in training in his home town during the coronavirus outbreak, state media have reported.
Sun normally trains in Beijing, where he was before the Lunar New Year, but has remained in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, as the country battles the virus.
Beijing has introduced a mandatory 14-day quarantine for anyone arriving in the capital, while Zhejiang introduced a lockdown of communities and road blocks in January. Sun donated meals to police at one roadblock.
Those measures have since been eased by the provincial government, which has seen the third-highest number of cases behind Hubei and Guangdong.
The captain of China's national swimming team, #SunYang, has been training in his hometown of Hangzhou during the ongoing coronavirus or #COVID19 outbreak pic.twitter.com/1nnDVqMRyt
" CGTN (@CGTNOfficial) February 14, 2020
"I must keep training and striving for my personal goals," Sun told CGTN of his training sessions behind closed doors at the Zhejiang College of Sports.
"This is a painstaking process, and it might be harder than preparing for the Asian Games or World Championships, but I always want to prove myself."
Sun qualified for the 200m and 400m freestyle events at meets in Beijing and Shenzhen last month but he is also eyeing gold in the 800m, he said.
The 28-year-old has maintained his focus on the Tokyo 2020 despite awaiting the result of Wada's appeal against him and Fina over an out-of-competition doping test at his home in 2018.
That verdict was expected no earlier than mid-January after a delay related to the translation of Chinese testimony into English at the hearing in Switzerland last November.
Construction worker and CAS confusion make Sun Yang trial a farce
Chinese athletes have been affected by the outbreak, with the gymnastics team confirming on Saturday that they would not take part in the World Cup in Melbourne next week because of the Australian government's travel restrictions.
Their women's football counterparts are staying in Australia after playing Tokyo 2020 qualifiers last week, which took place after a period in quarantine at a Brisbane hotel.
China and Hong Kong badminton players have pulled out of the Asian championships in Manila, while China's women's handball team withdrew from next month's Olympic qualifiers in Hungary.
Copyright (c) 2020. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
