Sun Yang and Mack Horton separated after Chinese and Australian swimmers given adjoining training lanes
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A potential flashpoint was defused when controversial Chinese swimmer Sun Yang changed lanes in the training pool on Wednesday to avoid being alongside his rival and biggest critic, Australian Mack Horton, as they prepared for the Fina World Championships in Gwangju, South Korea.
The pair had been given lanes three and four in the practice pool before Sun’s Australia-born coach, Dennis Cotterell, moved the Chinese swimmer to lane five.
Sun returned to lane four after the Australian swim team had left the pool.
There were fears of a potential flashpoint because of the previous war of words between the pair.
Horton has long been critical of Sun, notably speaking out after beating him to Olympic gold in the 400m freestyle at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
