Five-star Sjoestroem sets worlds alight, Ledecky and McKeown win

FUKUOKA, Japan :Sarah Sjoestroem cruised to her fifth consecutive World Aquatics Championships title in the women's 50 metres butterfly event on Saturday, before the evergreen Swede broke the world record in the semi-finals of the 50m freestyle race.

The 29-year-old finished the day's opening event in 24.77 seconds to deny China's Zhang Yufei, who was 0.28 seconds behind while Gretchen Walsh of the United States took bronze.

"That was amazing, I'm very proud of this gold which is the fifth one, it's amazing," said Sjoestroem, who also went level with American great Michael Phelps on 20 individual medals at the world championships.

"I feel like I enjoy it more than ever at the moment."

Sjoestroem then produced a superb effort of 23.61 seconds in the freestyle race to better her own mark of 23.67 seconds which she had set in the 2017 worlds in Budapest.

American Katie Ledecky showed she was also at the peak of her powers at the age of 26, going quickest in the women's 800m to retain her title and bag a 21st worlds gold overall having also won the 1,500m race this week.

Ledecky led from start to finish and touched the wall in 8:08.87, four seconds outside of her 2016 world record. She went 4.44 seconds faster than silver medallist Li Bingjie of China, with Australia's Ariarne Titmus collecting bronze.

Victory also meant Ledecky surpassed Phelps' record tally of 15 individual gold at the worlds. Her sixth 800m freestyle gold was another new mark, with no swimmer achieving the feat in a single event at the worlds.

MEMORABLE TREBLE

Australia's Olympic and world champion Kaylee McKeown sealed a memorable treble at the meet as she roared to the women's 200m backstroke title after the 22-year-old had prevailed over 50m and 100m earlier in