Manuel wins second straight 100 free title at worlds

GWANGJU, South Korea — 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 Friday in the 100 freestyle, winning her second straight title at the world championships on a day when three world records fell — the men’s 100 butterfly and 200 breaststroke and the women’s 200 backstroke.

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-yearold 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 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 worldrecord holder, 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.

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

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.

Smith, who is 17, won her semifinal heat in 2:03.35. That erased the old mark of 2:04.06 set by Missy Franklin at the 2012 London Olympics.

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.

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.

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