Sun Yang became China's first male Olympic swimming champion when he upset South Korean favorite Park Tae-hwan to win the men's 400m freestyle final on Saturday at the London Games.

Sun touched home in 3:40.14, an Olympic record time.

Park was two seconds behind Sun in the final. Peter Vanderkaay of the United States took the bronze medal.

In the morning preliminaries, Park touched the wall first in his 400 freestyle heat, but was thrown out for a false start. South Korea filed a protest which was upheld by governing body FINA.