LONDON -- China's swimming prodigy Sun Yang continued his remarkable show in London as he breezed into men's 200m freestyle final with a fastest time on Sunday.
Sun posted 1:45.61 in the semifinal to touch the wall first. Yannick Agnel, who turned over U.S. Olympic champion Ryan Lochte in the 4X100 freestyle relay, was second placed after the semifinal. Park Tae hwan, who lost to Sun in the 400m freestyle event a day before, finished third into the final.
Lochte and German defending Olympic champion Paul Biedermann also cruised into the final scheduled on Monday.
"I didn't expect to win my heat and semifinal," Sun said.
"A bronze medal would be good enough for me, as I still don't think 200 meters is my strongest event. It is a bit short for me," he added.
The 20-year-old, who smashed Grant Hackett's decade-old 1,500m world record at the Shanghai Wolrd Championships last year, considered Biedermann as the favourite in the gold medal.
Park, gold medalist of 400m freestyle and runner-up of 200m freestyle at Beijing Olympics, said he felt better in the semifinal than in morning's heats.
"I didn't give everything in this race as it is still the semi-final," he admitted.
"I saw Sun Yang look over to me in the race. I am happy we are rivals," said Park, who was overtaken by Sun in opening day's 400m freestyle final after a lead-off.
"My aim in the final is to break my personal best, no matter what color medal I may win," he said.
Another Chinese Lu Ying took a silver in women's 100m butterfly on Sunday, adding the fourth Olympic medal to China on the second day swimming.
A day before, Sun achieved an emphatic win over Park to make himself the first Chinese male swimmer to claim a historic Olympic gold medal. Teenager Ye Shiwen shattered world record to win the women's 400 individual medley, while teammate Li Xuanxu got a bronze medal.
