James Guy wins historic 200m freestyle gold at world championships

Sun* took silver in 1:45.20, the bronze to world record holder and the 2009 champion Paul Biedermann (GER) in 1:45.38. Ryan Lochte and Chad Le Clos finished in fourth and sixth.

“I never thought I’d race Ryan Lochte head to head like that, he is one of my heroes”, grinned Guy, who is making his world championship debut in Kazan.

“I tried to focus on myself (in the final 50m) and I knew the boys would go out hard”.

Some of the world’s best athletes really have no one but themselves to compete against.

It was a night of highs and lows, with Katie Ledecky smashing her own world record and China’s “golden boy” Sun Yang outsprinted for gold at the Fina world championships in Kazan.

The 19-year-old, who trains at Millfield School in Somerset, won in a British record of one minute 45.15 seconds.

“I really gave it my best shot”, she said.

Now that Ledecky has won the World Championship, she looks perfectly timed to capture the world’s attention, which she gets a chance to do next summer in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in the 2016 Summer Olympic Games.

“There’s more there for me though”. Next lap, it was guy at the edge of the wave, on 50.99 as first man through, Sun now up to second in 51.12, and looking like the distance threat to what these days is a sprint title.

Seebohm’s teammate, Madison Wilson, was second in 58.75 and Mie Oe Nielsen of Denmark was third in 58.86.

Mitch Larkin then held off 2011 world champion Camille Lacourt, of France, in the men’s 100m backstroke on the final stroke.

Lithuanian rival Ruta Meilutyte took home silver, 0.70 behind the Russian, while Alia Atkinson secured a rare swimming medal for Jamaica, winning bronze.

In the final event of a pulsating session, favourite Yuliya Efimova delighted the home crowd by taking gold in the women’s 100m breaststroke.

Efimova won in 1:05.66 to beat Ruta Meilutyte of Lithuania in a reversal of their results two years ago, when Efimova finished second.

Another Brit, Adam Peaty, followed Guy’s glory, setting a world record in the 50m breaststroke, winning the first semi-final in 26.42.

The 19-year-old set a new British record to finish the final in the silver-medal position with a time of 3:43.75.