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Earlier, China’s Qin Haiyang celebrated a second gold at the championships in the men’s 200m breaststroke final, punching the air before standing with his arms spread wide to soak up the acclaim of a crowd packed with fans.<\/p>\n
Japan’s Ippei Watanabe won silver and Caspar Corbeau of the Netherlands took bronze.<\/p>\n
Qin, 26, won the 100m breaststroke earlier in the week and is returning to form after flopping at last year’s Paris Olympics, where he did not make the final of the 200m breaststroke.<\/p>\n
His preparations for the Games were thrown into turmoil when he was implicated in a major doping scandal.<\/p>\n
A report named Qin among 23 Chinese swimmers who had tested positive for a prescription heart drug before the pandemic-delayed Tokyo Olympics in 2021.<\/p>\n
The swimmers were not sanctioned as the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) accepted the argument of Chinese authorities that the positive tests were caused by contaminated food<\/a>.<\/p>\n Elsewhere, defending champion Marrit Steenbergen denied 200m champion Mollie O’Callaghan a sprint double as the Dutchwoman won the women’s 100m freestyle.<\/p>\n Olympic champion Hubert Kos won a fierce battle against South Africa’s Pieter Coetze in the men’s 200m backstroke final.<\/p>\n Women’s 200m breaststroke gold went to another reigning Olympic champion, the American Kate Douglass.<\/p>\n She powered to victory in a championships-record 2:18.50, ahead of the Russian world record holder Evgeniia Chikunova (2:19.96) and Kaylene Corbett of South Africa (2:23.52).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n