Australia grabs 3 titles and 1 world record, U.S. ends 4-day gold drought

Australian swimmers bagged three out of six titles and set one world record on the penultimate day's competition of the World Aquatics Championships here on Saturday, increasing their gold haul to 13, reported Xinhua.

The United States claimed their first gold medal in four days and only fourth in total through Olympic champion Katie Ledecky, who added the women's 800m freestyle title to her 1,500m victory.

Australian Kaylee McKeown, a double Olympic champion and world record holder, completed her clean sweep of all three women's backstroke golds as she retained the 200m title.

McKeown, who had already won 50m and 100m, dominated the race from the start, hitting the wall in 2:03.85, 0.71 seconds shy of her own world record of 2:03.14.

"That means a lot," she said. "I didn't think I would be able to do that tonight. Especially after a really long week. I'm really happy to be near my 'PB'."

American Regan Smith, the 2019 world champion, finished second and China's Peng Xuwei took bronze.

Australia's Cameron McEvoy, 29, won the men's 50m freestyle in an Oceanian record of 21.06 seconds. Jack Alexy collected the silver, the 14th the United States has got at this tournament.

The United States, which won 17 gold medals last year at the Budapest worlds, has not won a title since Ryan Murphy triumphed in the men's 100m backstroke four days ago.

The 26-year-old Ledecky, who also successfully defended her 1,500m crown on that day, broke the jinx by retaining the women's 800m title in style. She dominated the race in eight minutes and 8.87 seconds, beating China's Li Bingjie by 4.44 seconds.

Li, 21, the Chinese national champion, broke the Asian record in 8:13.31 and Australia's Ariarne Titmus, the 400m freestyle winner, took bronze in an Oceanian record of 8:13.59.

"I never dreamt of even coming to meets like this," Ledecky said. "It's always a battle, it's always a great race. I know I have to bring my best every single time."

Australia's third gold came from the mixed 4x100m freestyle relay. Mollie O'Callaghan, the women's 100m and 200m freestyle champion, anchored them to the top of the podium in a new world record of 7:37.50.

The United States took silver and China finished third.

In the day's other two events, Sweden's Sarah Sjoestroem, 29, secured her fifth straight world women's 50m butterfly title in 24.77 seconds, the sixth fastest of all-time, only behind five of her other performances.

China's Zhang Yufei, the 100m butterfly champion, finished second while Gretch Walsh of the United States took bronze.

The men's 100m butterfly gold went to Maxime Grousset of France.