Simone Manuel wins 2nd straight world title in women’s 100 free

Simone Manuel wasn't swimming up to her standards, and she felt her relay anchor leg that resulted in a silver medal for the U.S. proved it.

Then she remembered it's about bouncing back.

Manuel did just that in the 100 freestyle, winning her second straight title at the world championships on Friday.

Relegated to Lane 1 with the slowest qualifying time, the American led all the way and touched first in 52.04 seconds, beating Cate Campbell of Australia by 0.39 seconds.

"Not everybody has a perfect swim every time so I just needed to regroup and put on a good face," the 22-year-old Texan said. "I'm a veteran on the team, so I have to be able to show a little bit of poise in these hard moments."

Manuel was unable to hold off Campbell on the anchor leg of the 4x100 free relay earlier in the meet, with Australia claiming gold and the U.S. silver.

"I did take that relay really hard because I didn't feel like I did as best as I possibly could," Manuel said.

She made up for it in the 100 free.

Manuel was the only woman under 25 seconds on the opening lap. She knocked 1.27 seconds off her time from the morning semifinals that landed her in the far outside lane.

Manuel became the second woman to win multiple titles in the 100 free, joining Kornelia Ender of the former East Germany, who won in 1973 and '75.

Sarah Sjostrom of Sweden, the world-record holder, took bronze.

In 2016, Manuel became the first African-American woman to win an individual swimming gold at the Olympics when she tied Canada's Penny Oleksiak for gold in Rio de Janeiro.

Mack Horton rallied Australia to victory in the men's 4x200 freestyle relay, putting them in front with a lap to go. Clyde Lewis, Kyle Chalmers, Alexander Graham and Horton won in 7:00.85.

Russia took silver in 7:01.81. The U.S. team of Andrew Seliskar, Blake Pieroni, Zach Apple and Townley Haas earned bronze in 7:01.98.

Sun Yang swam China's anchor leg against Horton, but he wasn't able to move up and his team finished sixth in his final event.

Sun swept the 200 and 400 freestyles, winning the 200 via disqualification and beating Horton in the 400. Horton snubbed Sun on the podium because the Aussie is angry that FINA allowed him to compete this week while facing a career-threatening hearing involving a clash with drug testers.

Leading off the relay for Britain was Duncan Scott, who snubbed Sun on the podium after the 200 free for similar reasons as Horton.

Yuliya Efimova of Russia claimed a record third title in the 200 breaststroke. She won in 2:20.17 without competition from American rival Lilly King, who was disqualified in the preliminary heats when she didn't touch both hands on the wall at the same time in a turn.

"I'm sad that she's not here because it would probably mean a more interesting race," Efimova said. "I told my dad after semifinals that I swam fast and I don't know what to do in finals because I did everything already."

It was Efimova's 14th individual world medal, tying her with Katinka Hosszu of Hungary and Sjostrom for most among women.

Tatjana Schoenmaker of South Africa earned silver, becoming her country's first woman to win a swimming medal at worlds. She was in tears on the podium and received her medal from countrywoman Penny Heyns, who swept the breaststroke events at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

"I was completely shocked," Schoenmaker said.

Sydney Pickrem of Canada took bronze.

Anton Chupkov of Russia broke the world record in the 200 breaststroke, touching in 2:06.12 in defense of his title from two years ago in Budapest.

That lowered the mark of 2:06.67 that Matthew Wilson of Australia had tied in the semifinals a day earlier. Ippei Watanabe of Japan, who earned bronze, set the mark in January 2017 in Tokyo.

Chupkov was eighth after the first lap and moved up to fifth at 150 meters. He came home in 31.89 to overtake Wilson, who led from the start and finished second.

Evgeny Rylov of Russia defended his 200 backstroke title, beating Olympic champion Ryan Murphy after the two dueled through the closing meters.

Rylov led all the way and touched in 1:53.40. Murphy settled for silver in 1:54.12. Luke Greenbank of Britain earned bronze.

Two more world records fell in semifinals at the hands of Americans.

Caeleb Dressel broke Michael Phelps' record in the 100 butterfly and Regan Smith lowered the mark in the 200 backstroke.

Dressel won his heat in 49.50 seconds — 0.32 seconds better than Phelps' mark set at the 2009 world meet in Rome at the height of the high-tech suit era.

"Just the standard that Michael set, wanted to go after it," Dressel said. "I hope he was happy watching me do that."

Dressel was out in 22.83 seconds — 0.53 seconds under Phelps' pace — and came home in 26.67 to lead eight men into Saturday's final.

Smith, who is 17, won her semifinal heat in 2:3.35. That erased the old mark of 2:04.06 set by Missy Franklin at the 2012 London Olympics.

"I'm in shock," Smith said. "I really don't believe it."

Dressel was impressed with his young teammate.

"I thought that was one of the top-three toughest world records on the women's side and she just crushed it," he said.

Franklin tweeted: "You're beyond a joy to watch."

Lilly King on DQ at world swims: I did it

Lilly King believes officials made the right call when they disqualified her for an unorthodox turn in the 200-meter breaststroke heats at the world swimming championships.

As a result, the American said Friday she will reevaluate her turns in the event.

Officials ruled King didn't touch the wall with both hands at the same time in the first turn Thursday.

"They made the right call," King said Friday. "When you saw it in super slo-mo and super zoom, I definitely did it."

The U.S. lost its initial protest of the DQ and was denied again by FINA's Jury of Appeals.

"I really appreciate everyone's effort to try to get it overturned, but it was so over the top," King said, referring to the drawn-out process that took most of the day and wasn't announced until shortly before the evening semifinals.

King, an outspoken doping critic, criticized FINA earlier in the meet for allowing China's Sun Yang to compete in Gwangju while he has a pending case before the Court for Arbitration in Sport that threatens to result in his lifetime ban.

She also supported Australian Mack Horton's shunning of Sun on the medals podium, saying, "I don't think anyone at FINA is going to stand up for the athletes, so the athletes have to stand up for themselves."

"Do I think maybe something I had said about FINA earlier maybe came back to haunt me in the jury? Yeah, probably," King said, "but I'm still going to stand up for what I believe in and in the end the official made the right call."

In the turns, swimmers try to get in and out of the wall as fast as possible. Some place both hands flat on the wall. King describes her technique as unorthodox.

She staggers her hands, with her right touching flat above the water and her left poking the wall with a finger. She uses her flat hand to push away. On-deck judges observe each lane to ensure swimmers touch the wall simultaneously.

"I think it would have been very difficult to see with the human eye personally, but I think the official was standing at just the right angle and she got me," King said. "The officials are there to do their job and that's what they did."

King said she was disqualified for the same infraction in the event at the U.S. national championships four years ago.

She's glad this latest DQ occurred at worlds instead of next year's Olympics.

"I still have a whole year to fix that and make it better and make it perfect before we get to Tokyo," she said.

US teen Regan Smith sets world record in women's 200 back

Regan Smith broke the world record in the women's 200-meter backstroke Friday at the world swimming championships.

The 17-year-old American won her semifinal heat in 2 minutes, 3.35 seconds. That erased the old mark of 2:04.06 set by Missy Franklin at the 2012 London Olympics.

Smith lowered her own junior world record in the morning preliminaries, finishing in 2:06.01.

In the semifinals, she finished 3.22 seconds ahead of Kylie Masse of Canada, who was the second-fastest qualifier.

The final is Saturday night.

Anton Chupkov sets world record in men's 200 breaststroke

Anton Chupkov of Russia broke the world record in the men's 200-meter breaststroke at the world swimming championships Friday.

He won gold in 2 minutes, 6.12 seconds, defending his title from two years ago in Budapest.

That lowered the mark of 2:06.67 that Matthew Wilson of Australia had tied in the semifinals a day earlier. Ippei Watanabe of Japan set the mark in January 2017 in Tokyo.

Chupkov was eighth after the first lap and moved up to fifth at 150 meters. He came home in 31.89 to overtake Wilson, who led from the start.

It was the third world record of the night in Gwangju.