China's Yan Zibei sets Asian record at FINA Worlds

GWANGJU, South Korea - China's Yan Zibei repeated his record-breaking swimming in the men's 50m breaststroke, although it was not enough to win a medal at the 18th World Championships here on Wednesday.

Yan touched home sixth in the 50m breaststroke final with a new Asian record of 26.86 seconds. He also broke the Asian record in the same distance, clocking 26.93 seconds in the heats and 26.86 in the semifinals.

The previous record holder was Japan's Yasuhiro Koseki, who timed in 26.94 last year at the Mare Nostrum tour.

"I am more mature in terms of the mental state now than before. I just try to make my best efforts and be myself in the match," said Yan.

In the 50m breaststroke final, Adam Peaty of Britain claimed a gold medal in 26.06, followed by Felipe Lima of Brazil and his teammate Joao Gomes Junior who took silver and bronze each.

In the men's 100m breaststroke race of the championships, Yan also cracked a new Asian record at 58.67 in semifinals and at 58.63 in final. Yan won a bronze medal in the event, becoming the first Chinese breaststroke medalist at the worlds in 21 years.

Hungary's Kristof Milak set a new world record of 1:50.73 in the men's 200m butterfly final, winning his first world championships title in the event. Milak took a silver medal in the 100m butterfly in Budapest two years ago.

Daiya Seto of Japan pocketed the silver in 1:53.86, 3.13 seconds behind. Defending champion Chad lo Clos of South Africa took the bronze with a time of 1:54.15.

"Today, I tried to switch off everything, and I tried not to think of swimming at all before the race. It's a tremendous honor to set such a great record," said Milak.

China's Olympic champion Sun Yang competed in his third and last individual final, saying he was satisfied with his sixth-place finish in the men's 800m freestyle with a time of 7:45.01.

Defending champion Gregorio Paltrinieri of Italy retained the title in 7:39.27, a new European record, followed by Norway's Henrik Christiansen in 7:41.28 and France's David Aubry in 7:42.08.

It was Sun's seventh race at the worlds after he claimed victory in the 400m freestyle for a record fourth time in a row and then was crowned in the 200m on Tuesday.

"It was a big success as I finished the 800m race. I swam faster than I expected. I had competed in the 3,000m during the last four days and I was exhausted and had sore legs after the 200m mark," said Sun, who is competing in his seventh worlds. Sun will also compete in the freestyle relay event in Gwangju.

In the women's 200m freestyle final, Chinese teenager Yang Junxuan set a new world junior record at 1:55.43 though she failed to reach the medal podium because of her fifth finish. The 17-year-old grabbed the 200m freestyle silver medal at the 2018 Asian Games.

Federica Pellegrini of Italy clocked 1:54.22 in the 200m final to take the gold, followed by Australian teenager Ariarne Titmus of Australia who defeated U.S. swimming star Katie Ledecky in the women's 400m freestyle final.

China's Fu Yuanhui finished ninth in the women's 50m backstroke semifinals, getting knocked out of the race after falling by the wayside in the 100m backstroke heats on Monday.

"The result is out of my expectation, but I have tried my best. I have made all that I can do today and I have trained even harder than four years ago," said Fu who grabbed a 100m backstroke bronze medal in the 2016 Rio Olympics.

"I feel sorry to my coach and all the others that care for me and encourage me. I suffered a waist pain after the race in the morning, and had pain pills at noon and in the afternoon," said Fu.

In the mixed 4x100m medley relay, Australia won a gold medal in 3:39.08, defeating the defending champion United States that took silver in 2015 before moving up to gold two years later. The mixed relay was adopted in 2015.

Britain pocketed a bronze medal at 3:40.68 in the mixed relay.

Gary Hunt of Britain won a gold medal in the men's 27m high diving followed by Steve LoBue of the United States.

LoBue failed to win his second consecutive world title in the high dive, which was introduced as a medal match at the biennial event in 2013.

Jonathan Paredes of Mexico took a bronze medal with 430.15 points. The Mexican diver won bronze at the inaugural high diving competition in 2013 and silver in 2015.