Yearender: Top 10 Chinese athletes of 2017

BEIJING, Dec. 27 (Xinhua) -- Following are the top 10 Chinese athletes of the year of 2017 voted by Xinhua News Agency:

1. Sun Yang (Swimming)

Sun, 26, won the men's 200m freestyle title at the 2017 FINA World Championships in Budapest. By far he has won all gold medals of the four freestyle events from 200m to 1,500m in the tournament. He also snatched his third consecutive title in his strongest event of 400m freestyle in Budapest.

He swept six golds plus one silver in the 13th Chinese National Games in Tianjin.

2. Gong Lijiao (Track and Field)

Gong, 28, won her first shotput world title in London after winning two silver medals and three bronze medals at the IAAF worlds. She also became the first Chinese to win an IAAF Diamond League trophy with victories in Shanghai, Rome, Paris and Zurich.

3. Feng Shanshan (Golf)

Feng, 28, climbed to the top of world rankings after capturing her ninth title in the Blue Bay LPGA in south China's Hainan. She is the first world No. 1 golfer from Chinese mainland.

4. Zhu Ting (Volleyball)

Zhu led the Chinese women's volleyball team to win the FIVB Volleyball Women's World Grand Champions Cup with five straight victories. It was China's first title at the tournament since 2001. The 23-year-old spiker and captain was also voted as the Most Valuable Player of the event.

In her first season in Vakifbank, Zhu helped the Turkish volleyball team win the 2017 CEV European Championship and World Club Championship, and thus was voted as the MVP of the two events.

5. Xu Jiayu (Swimming)

Xu clinched the gold medal in the men's 100m backstroke at the 2017 FINA World Championships in Budapest, a first for Chinese male swimmers at any world championships.

Before the Budapest tournament, the 22-year-old Olympic silver medalist also broke the Asian record in the 100m backstroke at the National Swimming Championships with 51.86 seconds, 0.01 second behind the world record. He became the first Asian swimmer to finish the event within 52 seconds.

6. Ding Ning (Table Tennis)

Ding won the women's singles and doubles at the 2017 World Championships in Dusseldorf of Germany. The 27-year-old paddler became the third Chinese female player to win a hat trick of world singles title following Deng Yaping and Wang Nan. After sweeping all tournaments she's involved since 2016, the world No. 1 seed added her first National Games title to her trophy list in Tianjin.

7. Sui Wenjing/Han Cong (Figure Skating)

Sui, 22, and Han, 25, claimed the title of pair free skating at ISU World Figure Skating Championships 2017 in Helsinki, earning the first gold for China in the tournament since 2010.

8. Shi Tingmao (Diving)

Shi retained her title in the women's 3m springboard and bagged her third straight gold in women's 3m synchronized springboard at the FINA World Championships in Budapest. The Olympic champion also swept two golds at the 13th Chinese National Games in Tianjin.

The 26-year-old diver was for the third time awarded the FINA Best Female Diver of the Year earlier this month.

9. Xiao Ruoteng (Gymnastics)

Xiao, 21, captured the crown in men's all-around in the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Montreal, Canada. He is the fourth Chinese gymnast to win the event in the tournament following Li Xiaoshuang, Feng Jing and Yang Wei.

10. Luo Jing (Mountaineering)

Luo, 42, successfully reached the Broad Peak in July to become the first Chinese woman to climb the world's 13 8,000-meter-plus peaks. Enditem