JINAN, East China, Oct. 24 (Xinhua) -- Bronze medalist of World Championships Sun Yang overtook top favorite Zhang Lin to win the men's 1500m freestyle swimming at the 11th National Games Saturday.

    Sun, runner-up to Zhang in the 200m freestyle at National Games, powered home in 14 minutes 54.87 seconds, more than ten seconds clear of Zhang who placed third in 15:03.12.

    Dai Jun, member of 4x200m free relay champion team, took silver in 14:50.05.

    Zhang, China's first male swimming world champion and world best holder, was considered the strongest contender for gold in Saturday's final.

    He set early pace in the long-course race, but lost his lead in the middle part after pulled away by Sun and Dai.

    "I already tried my best in the final which was tough for me," said Zhang after the competition, who caught a bad cold.

    "To improve myself through every competition is much more important than sealing the gold," he added.

    Zhang had seized three swimming gold medals, one silver and one bronze at the on-going National Games.

    He stressed there was no permanent winner in the pool. "Young swimmers are making progress rapidly, and every competition is a challenge for each of us."

    An upbeat Sun Yang said it was encouraging for him to taste the second victory over his archrival Zhang, following the first one in the same event at the Rome World Championships.

    He said he might head for Australia next year to train for the Asian Games scheduled in November, 2010 in China's Guangdong Province.

    Sun bagged a bronze medal in the 1500m freestyle in Rome in 14:46.84.

    The world record of the event is 14:34.56.

    Ten Asian records and one world record have been established in the eight-day events as the swimming competition at the Chinese National Games comes to an end Saturday.