, runner-up two years ago, won the men's singles title at the badminton world championships when he beat Fung Permadi of Taiwan 15-6 15-13 in the final on Sunday. It was the second gold medal in eight days for 22-year-old Sun, who had helped China win the Sudirman Cup world mixed team badminton title.
It made up for the disappointment of the 1997 men's final in Glasgow when, stricken by cramp, Sun lost a two-hour marathon against Denmark's Peter Rasmussen.
Second seed Sun had no cramp problems on Sunday, although he was booed by the crowd at the Brondby Hallen who thought he was playing for time when he towelled down while trailing 9-6 in the second game.
However, the crowd's displeasure had already been fuelled by the fact that Sun had defeated Denmark's Olympic champion Poul-Erik Hoyer-Larsen in Saturday's semifinals and then suggested that matches with the 33-year-old Dane were ``getting easier and easier.''
But the win over Permadi, who had beaten Danish world number one Peter Gade Christensen in the semifinals, was far from easy.
Sun appeared to have let the second game slip when he trailed 13-9 to the fifth-seeded former Indonesian.
But that was just the signal for Sun to launch a terrific title charge.
One rally , which took Sun to match point, included a recovery shot from Permadi played between his legs.
Sun took the title on his first match point for China's second title of the final day.
Earlier, second seeds Ge Fei and Gu Jun had won the women's doubles by beating Ra Kyung Min and Chung Jae Hee of South Korea 15-4 15-5.
Badminton-Xia and Gong take All England titles for China (2000-03-12)Badminton-Sun wins men's world title (1999-05-24)Badminton-Gade picks up the pieces after defeat (1999-05-16)Christensen, Ye win Japan Open badminton singles (1999-04-12)
