Gwangju (South Korea) (AFP)

Not welcome for everyone after his incredible doping control last year, Sun Yang has not been distracted: the Chinese won gold in the 400m freestyle at the World Swimming Championships, Sunday in Gwangju (Korea) from South). On the same distance, Katie Ledecky was knocked out by young Australian Ariarne Titmus.

If the International Swimming Federation (Fina) seems very comfortable with Sun's presence in the Korean basin, she has not sanctioned him, for want of form, after he destroyed with a hammer a blood sample during an unannounced test last September, this is not the case for all swimmers.

"Really, it's fishy and crazy enough that it happens!" Had denounced the American champion Lilly King on Friday.

An image summarizes the vivid malaise around the Sun: it is without stepping on the podium that the Australian Mack Horton has chosen to receive his silver medal. His face closed and his hands crossed in the back, he then witnessed Sun's roaring joy and the Chinese anthem, then stayed away at the moment of the souvenir photo.

His feeling? "Frustration, I think you know why," said Horton. "I believe that his actions and the way it's handled are more meaningful than anything I could say."

- "It stings" for Ledecky -

In Rio in 2016, when he had deprived Sun Olympic 400m, the Australian had been very clear: "I have no respect for doped," he had decided.

"I'm aware of the rumors, but I'm focusing on swimming, I know he has a personal problem with me, it's unfortunate, disrespectful, ok, but disrespectful to China, is regrettable, "replied Sun, winner of the 400m for the fourth consecutive time, in 3 min 42 sec 44.

The Sun series is not over: in Gwangju, it is still registered on 200 m and 800 m. It is only after that, in September, that he will have to appear before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) having appealed the decision of Fina.

A completely different series has seen a spectacular rebound from the first day of races in the pool: that of the unchained hegemony of Ledecky, five-time Olympic champion and fourteen-time world champion at age 22 only, making her the most competitive swimmer. Titled at the Worlds of History.

Never, on 400 m, Ledecky had known the defeat in a major championship.

After an Olympic coronation, three world and two Pan Pacific championships, it is the young Australian Ariarne Titmus, 18 years old, who dropped her pedestal at the price of a breathtaking recovery in the last length.

"It pecks a bit, of course, I'm not used to it," says Ledecky, who carefully avoided Titmus out of the water.

- Wattel, first -

The advent of Titmus, however, is not a surprise: the one who left his native Tasmania, with his family, to settle in Brisbane asserts for a year as a rival to his extent on the distance. Three times already, she had swam in less than four minutes. The first time last summer, at the "Panpacs" in Tokyo, where she had already pushed Ledecky into his entrenchments.

The two will meet on Tuesday on 200 m. It promises.

He also hit hard at the start: Britain's Adam Peaty, Olympic champion and five-time world champion, roared for the first time by breaking the 57-second mark (56.88) on the 100-meter breaststroke in the semi-finals. This is the first world record to fall.

French side, Marie Wattel (22 years old) will live on Monday her first world final, on 100 m butterfly. The 22-year-old, who trains in Loughborough, England, surprised herself by lowering her personal best by more than half a second in two races Sunday: 57 sec 53, she increased to 57 sec 23 in the playoffs, then to 57 sec in the semifinals (third place).

"I feel that I change size, the girls that I thought were inaccessible are not so far, it gives me confidence in me," she smiles, always in the emotion.

The rebirth relay tricolor 4x100 m men was ranked eighth and last (3: 13.34) of the final won by the United States Caeleb Dressel.

© 2019 AFP