Chinese Netizens Voice Support For Olympic Champion Sun Yang

By NIAM SEET WEI BEIJING, Aug 10 (Bernama) -- China's netizens have voiced their support for Sun Yang, the Chinese Olympic champion in swimming following the latter's withdrawal from the 1500m freestyle final at the world championships on Sunday due to a heart problem. “Don't be sorry, please rest well", ("You are the best and have always made us proud"), ("You've done your best"), ("keep it up and stay healthy! Keep it up!”), these are among over 83,000 messages seen on Sun's official Weibo account, China's version of Twitter, as of Monday afternoon. “Today, I feel so sorry because I have withdrawn from the final competition due to heart discomfort, and hence could not win another medal for China. I really tried my very best,” Sun, the 23 year-old Olympic swimmer and world record holder posted a message on Weibo early Monday morning. He also said he understood his obligation of shouldering aspirations of the nation and hoped people have faith in him and the country. Despite garnering over 22,000 likes, more than 44,000 Weibo users have shared his post as of 3pm Monday. Sun told a press conference on Sunday that he gave up the 1,500m freestyle final as he felt uncomfortable in the heart, and he felt sorry for that. Sun set a new world record of 14:31:02 in the 1500m freestyle at the London Olympics in 2012. --BERNAMA