China's Sun Yang produces late surge to win 200m freestyle gold
China's Sun Yang claimed his second gold of the ongoing world swimming championships with his 200m freestyle victory last night.
The 25-year-old, who had won the 400m freestyle on Sunday night, produced a late surge in the last 50m to win last night's 200m freestyle final in 1min 44.39sec.
Townley Haas of the United States won silver in 1:45.04, while the bronze went to Russia's Aleksandr Krasnykh, who clocked 1:45.23.
Earlier yesterday, Britain's Adam Peaty broke his own men's 50m breaststroke world record in the heats, saying that it was about time he did that.
The 22-year-old clocked 26.10 sec, lowering his mark of 26.42 set two years ago in the semi-finals of the world champs in Kazan, Russia, on his way to winning the final.
Fresh from winning the men's 100m breaststroke gold on Monday night, Peaty blasted out his world-record time to qualify for the semi-finals this morning (Singapore time).
"I wasn't going for a world record, I was just trying to qualify for the semis," said Peaty, who said he can go even faster.
"It's still only 10 in the morning, which is very early for a world record, but we'll see. That world record was two years old, so it was kind of due another push on."
Meanwhile, Katinka Hosszu said retaining her women's 200m individual medley title in front of her home crowd yesterday morning (Singapore time)was an "unforgettable experience".
Hosszu clocked 2min 07.00sec to win the gold medal again, with Japan's Yui Ohashi winning silver at 0.91sec and Madisyn Cox of the United States earning bronze, 2.71sec behind.
Each of Hosszu's strokes in the final 50 metres was met with a deafening roar from the Budapest crowd.
"It's hard to put into words what it means, it feels like my very first win," she said after her victory on home soil.
"I have been training in this pool, trying to imagine the crowd and prepare for it, but I don't think you can ever be ready.
"It was great motivation and it was just crazy.
"It was really amazing how everyone was supporting me in red, white and green, when I got out of the pool, I couldn't believe it."
Fireworks were set off next to the podium as Hosszu collected the sixth world title of her career.
The crowd sang along with the Hungarian national anthem Himnusz, as Hosszu struggled to keep her emotions in check.
The 28-year-old is the first woman to win three gold medals in the world championships' 200m medley, following her successes at Barcelona in 2013 and Kazan two years later.
Yesterday, her quest for glory continued as she was seeded third in 1min 56.43sec in the 200m freestyle heats, behind Italy's Federica Pellegrini (1:56.07) and America's Katie Ledecky (1:56.27), ahead of this morning's semi-finals. - WIRE SERVICES
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