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Sun Puts Second Gold on Horizon

Aug 3, 2012

Olympic Games, London 2012, Day 7 Heats

Men's 1500 Freestyle Heats

Italy's Gregorio Paltrinieri won the third heat to set the bar at 14:50.11 - ahead of Britain's Daniel Fogg - who posted 14:56.12. The 2007 world champion Mateusz Sawrymovicz of Poland was third in 14:57.59.

Heat 4 saw Olympic bronze medallist from Beijing Ryan Cochrane (CAN) in lane 4 next to world ranked number 2 Park Taehwan (KOR) -  but it was China's Dai Yun who attempted to take it out from lane 1. Cochrane moved back on him to the 400, and swam a relaxed race to win the heat in 14:49.31. Park had trailed in second and moved back to third behind Connor Jaeger of the USA. Park came back for the final 100 though and was 14:56.89 - touching out Jaeger in 14:57.56.

The fifth and final heat was the penultimate appearance of 400 metre Olympic champion Sun Yang of China - who led the race from the start, splitting easy 59s to stay well clear of Pal Joensen - a Faroe Islands native currently swimming for Denmark. After 500 metres Olympic and defending champion Oussama Mellouli of Tunisia moved into second, taking roughly 33 strokes per length for Sun's 26-27.

Sun finished to post the top time of 14:43.25, with Mellouli third in 14:46.23. Andrew Gemmel of Britain was third in 14:59.05.

The final lines up with Sun in first, followed by Mellouli and Cochrane seeded third - Sawrymovicz made it in in eighth spot - Gemmel locked out of the final in 9th place.