BUDAPEST (Reuters) -Swede Sarah Sjostrom continued her domination of the women’s 50m butterfly when she claimed gold at the swimming world championships on Friday while home favourite Kristof Milak added to his 200m butterfly crown with victory in the 100m butterfly.
It was Sjostrom’s fourth straight win in the event at the world championships and 18th individual medal overall as the 28-year-old edged out France’s Melanie Henique and Zhang Yufei of China for a place on the top of the podium.
Olympic silver medallist Milak, who set a world record in the 200m butterfly earlier in the week, moved clear of the field with 25 metres to go and barely looked troubled as he secured the win in 50.14 seconds.
Japan’s Naoki Mizunuma came through in second in 50.94 seconds, finishing just ahead of Canadian Joshua Liendo Edwards.
In the women’s 200m backstroke, there was heartbreak for American Phoebe Bacon after she was pipped to the title by Kaylee McKeown despite leading for much of the race.
The Australian won by 0.04 seconds while Bacon’s compatriot Rhyan White was almost two seconds slower in third.
Earlier, Benjamin Proud earned Britain’s first gold of the championships with victory in the men’s 50m freestyle, leaning on a strong finish to prevail in 21.32 seconds. American Michael Andrew clinched silver while Frenchman Maxime Grousset came third.
(Reporting by Dhruv Munjal in Bengaluru, editing by Pritha Sarkar and Christian Radnedge)
