James Guy of Britain wins 200 freestyle at swim worlds

Guy, the youngest swimmer in the final at age 19, touched first in 1 minute, 45.14 seconds.

The Chinese swimmer ultimately pulled clear in the final 50m but Guy held off Canada’s Commonwealth champion Ryan Cochrane to become the first British man to win a World Championship 400m Freestyle medal since Paul Palmer’s bronze in 1998.

“You can just get caught up in the circus, the lights, the sounds, the atmosphere, and here I sort of just took it in and enjoyed it, rather than thinking, ‘Oh my god, this is a world championships.”‘. “So if I had them, I could go even faster”.

“So to race him head-to-head like that was unbelievable and to touch my hand on the wall first and be world champion hasn’t sunk in quite yet, I am so happy”.

Peaty was in the pool again for the non-Olympic 50m breaststroke and advanced to the final from his semi-final in a world record of 26.42 seconds.

“Psychologically I have to change my approach a little bit after becoming the hunted, but I’ve still got nothing to lose really”, Peaty said. He earned silver in the 400 freestyle on Sunday.

Guy, who qualified second-fastest for the final, had gone off in front from the start and only Sun could keep up, before pulling ahead and taking the gold.

Australia dominated the 100-meter backstroke events at the world swimming championships Tuesday, winning the men’s title and going 1-2 in the women’s final.

“I never thought I’d race Ryan Lochte head to head like that, he is one of my heroes.”, said Guy after the race. He bettered the mark of 26.62 set by Cameron van der Burgh of South Africa in the morning preliminaries.

“Down that last length is going to be for Queen and country and I carry a lot of pride on my back that I am from Great Britain“.

“I went out there, improved my start and just let the swimming swim and that’s what I do all year round”.

It was a second gold for Great Britain at the meeting following Peaty’s triumph on Monday and the 20-year-old from Uttoxeter produced further fireworks on Tuesday night.