Ben Proud earned one of two bronze medals won by Great Britain at the World Aquatics Championships as Katie Ledecky enjoyed a record-breaking day.
Ledecky, 26, won the women’s 800m freestyle in Fukuoka for a record 16th individual world gold and a record sixth in a single event.
Both records had been held by fellow American Michael Phelps.
Meanwhile, Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom won the 50m butterfly title to tie Phelps’ record of 20 individual world medals.
A time of 24.77 seconds gave the 29-year-old victory over China’s Yufei Zhang (25.05) and American Gretchen Walsh (25.46), plus her fifth straight gold in the event and her 11th world title overall.
Then less than half an hour later Sjostrom broke her own world record in the 50m freestyle semi-finals.
The Olympic silver medallist won in 23.61 secs, beating the previous mark of 23.67 she set en route to winning gold at the 2017 World Championships.
Ledecky won 1500m freestyle gold by 17 seconds on Tuesday and was again a comfortable winner in 8 minutes 8.87 seconds, ahead of China’s Bingjie Li (8:13.31) and Australian Ariarne Titmus (8:13.59).
Despite winning the men’s 50m freestyle title in Budapest last year, Ben Proud said Cameron McEvoy was favourite going into Saturday’s final.
And the Australian won in 21.06, with USA’s Jack Alexy edging the silver medal in 21.57, just one hundredth of a second ahead of 28-year-old Proud.
Australia claimed another gold in the mixed 4x100m freestyle relay final with a world record of 3:18.83.
USA took silver (3:20.82) and Matthew Richards, Duncan Scott, Anna Hopkin and Freya Anderson secured bronze for GB with a European record of 3:21.68.
Earlier, Hopkin missed out on a spot in Sunday’s 50m freestyle final by just 0.06 seconds while team-mate Katie Shanahan came fourth in the 200m backstroke final.
The 19-year-old swam a personal best of 2:07.45, only to be denied a first world medal by Australia’s Olympic champion Kaylee McKeown (2:03.85), American Regan Smith (2:04.94) and China’s Xuwei Peng third (2:06.74).
Great Britain’s swimming medals so far
Great Britain won five medals at the 2022 World Championships in Budapest but have now won eight in Fukuoaka with one day to go.
They remain fifth in the medal table, one place behind 2024 Olympic hosts France.
Gold
Matt Richards – 200m freestyle
Duncan Scott, Matt Richards, James Guy, Tom Dean – 4x200m freestyle relay
Silver
Tom Dean – 200m freestyle
Duncan Scott – 200m medley
Bronze
Tom Dean – 200m medley
Lauren Cox – 50m backstroke
Ben Proud – 50m freestyle
Matt Richards, Duncan Scott, Anna Hopkin and Freya Anderson – 4x100m freestyle relay
