GWANGJU, South Korea, July 24 (Xinhua) -- China's triple Olympic champion and 11-time world champion Sun Yang ended his individual journey at the 18th FINA World Championships with two gold medals from the men's freestyle events.
Sun finished sixth in the men's 800m freestyle final with a time of 7:45.01, wrapping up all of his three individual events at the Championships in the South Korean city of Gwangju on Wednesday.
"The result is pretty good, and faster than my expectation. It is also my best result over the past years," said Sun.
On the first day of swimming races on Sunday, Sun roared to a record fourth straight world title in the men's 400m freestyle before defending his title in the 200m freestyle on Tuesday.
There was no other swimmer competing in all three events (200m, 400m and 800m) except the Chinese swimming star.
"Just after 200 meters [during the 800m final], I felt my leg muscles get sore, but I persisted until the end," said Sun.
"Today is the most relaxing day for me in the past days. I have no pressure, because after so many matches, what is the most important for today is to exercise and improve myself," Sun noted.
Regarding preparations for next year's Tokyo Olympic Games, Sun said he has to deal with the difficulty of figuring out how to complete multiple matches at just several days and to improve his performance between 400m and 700m.
After the 800m free final ended, Sun consoled a Ukrainian swimmer next to him in the pool as he looked extremely disappointed at his result.
"I think he is experiencing something that nearly all the athletes experience. I believe there are no national boundaries," Sun added.
