Sun Yang, Ding Ning honored China Laureus awards

BEIJING, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Chinese swimming star Sun Yang and table tennis player Ding Ning were honored the best male and female athlete respectively on the China Top Ten Benefitting Laureus Sport for Good awarding ceremony here on Wednesday.

As one of the most decorated Chinese swimmers in history, Sun firstly crowned the China Laureus honor in 2011 and was also voted as the most popular male athlete in 2017.

Sun won the 200m and 400m freestyle titles and set a new Asian record in the 200m at the 2017 FINA World Championships in Budapest. His World Championships medal tally increased to 14, including 9 gold medals.

"I'm pleased to win the trophy and I hope to express my gratitude to my family and my coach," said Sun. "Representing all the other excellent athletes, I'd like to take the award as great encouragement. I need to start from zero every time when I walked out the podiums."

Ding won the women's singles and doubles at the 2017 World Championships. She was also crowned at the 2017 China Open and was nominated for one of the 2017 ITTF stars. Former Chinese female national volleyball team captain Hui Ruoqi was voted as the most popular female athlete.

The 15-year-old swimmer Li Bingjie was presented as Rookie of The Year as she shattered the Asian records in the women's 400m and 1,500m freestyle and also won 800m together with a relay victory at 13th Chinese National Games.

Chinese golf star Feng Shanshan achieved the best breakthrough as she captured the Blue Bay LPGA title in Hainan and climbed to the top of world rankings.

The best non-Olympic athlete went to Go chess player Ke Jie and the best team went to Chinese national synchronized swimming team for their history-making performance at world championships.

Former figure skating Olympic champion Zhao Hongbo held the trophy of the best coach for his contribution to help Sui Wenjing/Han Cong and some other pairs to the world stage. Sui and Han, the best duo of the year, will show their talent in their Olympics debut in PyeongChang in February, 2018.

The sports spirit award was presented to the Chinese sailing pioneer Guo Chuan who has been missing since Oct. 25 last year while attempting to break the world record for crossing the Pacific alone. Enditem