China's Ning Zetao celebrates after winning the men's 100-meter freestyle final at the world championships in Kazan yesterday. He clocked 47.84 seconds.

It was a golden day for China in the pool at the world championships in Kazan last night as Ning Zetao and Fu Yuanhui captured surprising titles.

Ning Zetao led all the way to win the 100-meter freestyle in a race missing two key competitors.

Ning touched first in 47.84 seconds last night, following up his victory in last year's Asian Games with his first world title a year before the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.

Cameron McEvoy of Australia finished second in 47.95.

"That's the best place I've ever got, a world silver medal," McEvoy said. "Thinking back a couple of years ago it was out of reach for me, so to be in this position now, especially with a year to go, it's exciting."

Federico Grabich of Argentina was third in 48.12.

Reigning Olympic champion Nathan Adrian of the United States tied for seventh with Pieter Timmers of Belgium in 48.31.

Russia's Vladimir Morozov was disqualified for a false start in the semifinals and defending champion James Magnussen of Australia is home with a shoulder injury.

Ning was banned for a year after failing a doping test in March 2011 for taking the performance-enhancing drug clenbuterol.

He also won gold in the 50 at the Asian Games in South Korea.

Fu won the women's 50 backstroke gold later, clocking 27.11 seconds to win the final with Brazil's Etiene Medeiros taking silver and China's Liu Xiang earning the bronze.

Australia's Emily Seebohm, who won the 100 backstroke world gold on Tuesday night, finished fourth.

China leads the medals tally with a total of 31, including 14 gold. Russia is second with 15, 9 of them gold.

The United States is next with 8 gold medals and 19 total. Katie Ledecky has won three golds and set two world records for the Americans.

Earlier, Ryan Lochte reminded everyone that at age 31 he's still got gold in him.

Made history

The American made history last night, becoming the first man to win the 200 individual medley four consecutive times.

Lochte trailed through the first three legs but came home strong on the freestyle lap and touched first in 1 minute, 55.81 seconds.

Thiago Pereira of Brazil finished second in 1:56.65, and Wang Shun of China was third in 1:56.81.

It was Lochte's 24th world championships medal — second only to Michael Phelps' career total of 33 — and his 16th gold.

The US has won the event seven consecutive times, starting with Phelps' three titles in 2003, 2005, and 2007. Lochte picked up the mantle with previous victories in 2009, 2011, and 2013.

Grant Hackett of Australia won the 1,500 freestyle four times at the worlds.

Natsumi Hoshi of Japan rallied on the last lap to win the women's 200 butterfly in 2:05.56.

Cammile Adams of the US earned silver in 2:06.40. Zhang Yufei of China took bronze in 2:06.51.

American Katie McLaughlin led the first three laps but faded to sixth.

Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)