China’s Sun Yang captured a record fourth 400m freestyle World title in an acrimonious final on Sunday, before Britain’s Adam Peaty produced an eye-popping World breaststroke record.
Sun pumped his fists and let out a visceral roar after a pulsating race brimming with bad vibes and capped by rival Mack Horton’s refusal to join the Chinese giant on the podium after the medal ceremony in Gwangju.
“Not everyone likes me — I don’t care,” growled Sun when asked about Horton’s snub. “It’s OK if you don’t respect me personally, but at the victory ceremony — which is a sincere occasion — you should show respect to my country.”
The controversial triple Olympic gold medallist slapped the water in delight, pointing to his flag-waving Chinese fans as he savoured an emotional victory over Australian Horton and his 10th World championship gold medal.
The defending champion clocked three minutes, 42.44 seconds with Horton taking silver in 3:43.17 and Italian Gabriele Detti bronze in 3:43.23 in a repeat of the 2017 podium in Budapest.
The bad blood between him and Horton continued with the Australian refusing to take part in the traditional photo after the playing of the Chinese national anthem.
Peaty’s World record
Peaty smashed his own 100m breaststroke World record, the Olympic champion storming home to win his semifinal in a time of 56.88 seconds — becoming the first swimmer to break the 57-second barrier and eclipsing his previous mark by more than two tenths.
After the tension of Sun’s gold medal — the first of the eight-day pool competition — Aussie teenager Ariarne Titmus stunned American great Katie Ledecky to win the women’s 400m freestyle final.
The three-time champion looked in complete control until she faded coming off the final turn, allowing Titmus to storm past her to bag her first World title.
Caeleb Dressel, who swept seven medals at the 2017 world championships, led the American men’s 4x100m freestyle team to gold in a meet record of 3:09.06, retaining their title by almost a second from Russia in silver.
Cate Campbell anchored Australia to gold in the women’s 4x100m free in the evening’s final race.
The results:
Men: 400m freestyle: 1. Sun Yang (Chn) 3:42.44s, 2. Mack Horton (Aus) 3:43.17, 3. Gabriele Detti (Ita) 3:43.23. 4x100m freestyle relay: 1. USA 3:09.06, 2. Russia 3:09.97, Australia 3:11.22.
Women: 400m freestyle: 1. Ariarne Titmus (AUS) 3:58.76, 2. Katie Ledecky (USA)3:59.97, 3. Leah Smith 4:01.29. 4x100m freestyle relay: 1. Australia 3:30.21, 2. USA 3:31.02, 3. Canada 3:31.78 .
