RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug. 12 (Xinhua) -- Defending champion Sun Yang of China failed to qualify for the men's 1,500-meter freestyle final at the Rio Olympics on Friday.
Sun, who was suffering from cold symptoms, swam 15:01.97 seconds in the same heat as Australia's Mack Horton and placed only 16th among all the 45 competitors. It was more than half a minute shy of the world record he set four years ago in London 2012.
"He had a fever yesterday," said a Chinese team coach.
Earlier this week, Sun finished behind Horton to claim a silver medal in the 400m freestyle before storming to victory in the 200m freestyle.
