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SCMP Sport

Chinese swimmer Sun Yang will return to the pool at a top domestic meet next week, his first major competition since the end of his four-year ban for doping.
The 32-year-old is expected to represent his home Zhejiang province at the National Summer Swimming Championships, which start on Sunday in Hefei.
Yang’s drugs ban officially ended on May 28, and his team posted the message “Exceed yourself. Be a fearless swimmer” on social media soon after.
The championships are a Class B national swimming event in China, second only to the National Championships in terms of level and prestige.
Wang Wei, director of the Zhejiang Provincial Swimming Sports Management Centre, said the Olympic gold medallist would compete in the 400 metres freestyle, the event he won at the 2012 Games in London, state media reported.

The triple Olympic champion was banned from competition for four years and three months, reduced from eight years on appeal, for a dope test violation in 2018 in which he and members of his entourage smashed vials containing blood samples.
While suspended, Sun missed national trials for the Paris Olympics where China’s swim team were under intense scrutiny over the country’s doping record.
The World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) confirmed reports in April that 23 of the nation’s swimmers tested positive for trimetazidine, a heart medication banned under the Wada code, in the lead-up to the Tokyo Games.
Wada accepted the findings of a Chinese investigation that the test results were due to contamination from the kitchen of the hotel where the team were staying.
Sun served a three-month suspension in 2014 for taking trimetazidine, which he said was to treat a heart condition.
Though Sun is cleared for competition he may have little chance of swimming for China again.
Chinese athletes who receive doping suspensions longer than a year are banned from national teams, according to the country’s anti-doping rules.
China won 12 medals in the pool in Paris, including two golds.
Pan Zhanle claimed the men’s 100 freestyle title in a world record time, while China won the men’s 4x100 medley relay gold, ending the United States’ unbeaten record in the event.
Wang said Pan and provincial teammate Wang Shun, the former Olympic champion who took bronze in the men’s 200 individual medley this year, had not been included in Zhejiang’s team for the meet.


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China

The 32-year-old will represent his home Zhejiang province at the National Summer Swimming Championships, which start on Sunday


The 32-year-old will represent his home Zhejiang province at the National Summer Swimming Championships, which start on Sunday.


Sun Yang