Curzan, Pan strike gold at worlds

Standout swimmers Claire Curzan of the United States and Pan Zhanle of China won their fourth gold medals at the world championships in Doha, Qatar.

Curzan was in control all the way through the 200-meter backstroke final as she won by 1.26 seconds from 17-year-old Australian Jaclyn Barclay. Curzan completed her set of backstroke gold medals after earlier winning the 50 and 100, plus the 4x100 mixed medley relay.

Pan and China won the 4x100 mixed freestyle relay, which isn't on the Olympic program, ahead of Australia and the U.S. There was another strong lead-off swim from Pan, who earlier in the championships swam the fastest 100 meters in history during the 4x100 men's freestyle relay. It was his third gold medal of the worlds in relays.

Ukraine's Vladyslav Bukhov produced the surprise of the night in the 50 freestyle when he upset last year's winner Cameron McEvoy to triumph.

Bukhov won in 21.44 seconds, beating McEvoy by .01.

Katie Ledecky's streak of world titles in the 800 free ended when Simona

Quadarella of Italy took the gold — though Ledecky wasn't at the meet. Quadarella was neck and neck with Germany's Isabel Gose but beat her to touch the wall by .09 seconds.

Quadarella won double gold in the long-distance events after her earlier victory in the 1,500.

Ledecky, who won the event six times in a row, is one of the many top swimmers skipping the worlds to focus on building to the Paris Olympics.

Portugal's Diogo Matos Ribeiro won the 100 butterfly to add to his gold medal from the 50 fly earlier in the championships.