Sun Yang hearing lost in translation

Sun's counsel Ian Meakin was the first to make reference to the poor translation, apologizing to the judges for repeatedly reframing the same question.

"I'm sorry for leading but the translation is so bad," said Meakin.

Later in the testimony, WADA's counsel asked Sun the question: "You have given approximately 200 samples, are you saying today that after all the times that you have been tested, that you are not aware of the legal consequences for refusing to provide a sample?"

During Sun's response, Meakin interrupted after being told by a colleague – a lawyer from Beijing Lanpeng Law Firm – that the question was not translated properly.

"Sorry, for the record, there is a problem with the translation, you asked that he's been tested 200 times, and that was translated into Chinese as 200 millilitres of blood," said Meakin. "If you want him to answer your question, the translation must be correct."

Frequently, the translation was so fragmented it became nonsensical. On a few occasions when Sun was asked a question, his answers made no direct reference to the point at hand. It was unclear if Sun was being evasive, or if he simply had not received the original question.