American swimmers claim redemption at worlds

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — On a night of redemption for American swimmers, Lilly King, Ryan Murphy and the men's 4x200 freestyle team claimed three more gold medals for the United States at the world swimming championships on Thursday.

King atoned for missing out on the podium in the 100 breaststroke by winning the 200 breaststroke final for the first time.

“Any time I have a bad swim, I feel like I got a lot of haters out there. And just to be able to prove them wrong, gets me going,” King said.

The 25-year-old finished strongly to clock 2:22.41 and beat Australia's Jenna Strauch by 0.63. Kate Douglass claimed the bronze for the U.S.

King previously won golds in the 50 and 100 breaststroke at the 2017 and 2019 worlds.

Murphy got the Americans' second gold of the evening in the men's 200 backstroke, clocking 1:54.52 to beat Britain's Luke Greenbank by 0.64 seconds and U.S. teammate Shaine Casas by 0.83.

At 26, Murphy is another relative veteran on the American team. It was his first gold from an individual event at a words, adding to his four from relays.

The Americans had some making up to do in the men's 4x200 freestyle after failing to finish among the medals for the first time ever in that race at the Olympics last year.

Drew Kibler, Carson Foster, Trenton Julian and Kieran Smith duly obliged by clocking 7:00.24 in Thursday's final to finish more than three seconds ahead of the Australian and British teams.

Australians claimed the other two golds on offer at the Duna Arena in Budapest on Thursday. The 18-year-old Mollie O'Callaghan took the first, clocking 52.67 seconds in the women's 100 freestyle to beat world record holder Sarah Sjöström by 0.13 seconds.

American Torri Huske, 19, claimed the bronze to become the first swimmer to win four medals in the Hungarian capital this week.

World record holder Zac Stubblety-Cook won the men's 200 breaststroke in 2:07.07 — 1.31 ahead of Japan's Yu Hanaguruma and Sweden's Erik Persson, who tied for second.