SARAH Sjostrom of Sweden celebrates after winning the women’s 50m freestyle final.—Reuters
Chase Kalisz’s breaststroke leg in the men’s 400m individual medley also saw him land an individual medley double.
The American set a championship record of four minutes 5.90 seconds to become the third-fastest performer behind Phelps and Ryan Lochte.
David Verraszto of Hungary won silver, with Japan’s Daiya Seto securing bronze.
“Michael and Ryan are my idols so just to be behind them is cool for me to think about,” Kalisz told reporters.
Swedish sprint queen Sarah Sjostrom picked up her third sprint title in Budapest with victory in the women’s 50m freestyle final having set the world-record in the semis.
She also won the 50m and 100m butterfly finals and leaves Budapest with two world records after she became the first woman to swim the 100m freestyle under 52 seconds last Sunday.
The 23-year-old paced herself perfectly to hold off Ranomi Kromowidjojo of the Netherlands in 23.69 seconds. Simone Manuel of the U.S. won bronze.
Sjostrom said: “It was a really good first 25m but the finish was really bad. But it doesn’t matter what time it is, the only thing that mattered was that gold.”
Camille Lacourt of France delivered the perfect hors d’oeuvre for his new life as a Paris restaurant owner by blazing his way to a hat-trick of men’s 50m backstroke world golds.
Lacourt, 32, bowed out of the sport in style as his 24.35 seconds saw off Japan’s Junya Koga and Matt Grevers of the US into the minor medals.
Italy’s Gregorio Paltrinieri pulled away from Ukraine’s Mykhailo Romanchuk over the final laps to win the men’s 1,500m freestyle.
Not to be outdone by the men, the US broke the world record in winning the women’s 4x100m medley relay as Manuel touched the wall at 3:51.55 minutes to break their own record set at the 2012 London Olympics.
That paved the way for the US relay men’s golden finale, with Britain finishing in silver 1.04 seconds behind.
In their dominating performance at the championships, the US claimed six of the 11 world records set in Budapest. Katie Ledecky, who did not swim on Sunday, finished as the leading female swimmer with her five gold medals and one silver. Manuel collected five golds and a bronze.
Published in Dawn, August 1st, 2017