Great Britain won their first gold medal at the 2025 World Aquatics Championships in Singapore with victory in the men’s 4x200m freestyle relay.
Olympic champions Matt Richards, James Guy, Jack McMillan and Duncan Scott triumphed in the final race of day six in six minutes and 59.84 seconds.
Scott was roared home by his team-mates in the final leg, finishing more than one second ahead of his Chinese opponent, with Australia placing third.
The win means GB reclaim the world title they won in 2023.
GB have a chance of another medal later this week after Ben Proud maintained his hopes in the men’s 50m freestyle, coming through the semi-finals sixth fastest with a time of 21.61secs.
Angharad Evans placed fifth in the final of the women’s 200m breaststroke, while Luke Greenbank came eighth in the men’s 200m backstroke final.
Jordan Houlden narrowly missed out on a medal in the men’s 3m springboard final, finishing fourth.
Earlier, China’s Qin Haiyang celebrated a second gold at the championships in the men’s 200m breaststroke final, punching the air before standing with his arms spread wide to soak up the acclaim of a crowd packed with fans.
Japan’s Ippei Watanabe won silver and Caspar Corbeau of the Netherlands took bronze.
Qin, 26, won the 100m breaststroke earlier in the week and is returning to form after flopping at last year’s Paris Olympics, where he did not make the final of the 200m breaststroke.
His preparations for the Games were thrown into turmoil when he was implicated in a major doping scandal.
A report named Qin among 23 Chinese swimmers who had tested positive for a prescription heart drug before the pandemic-delayed Tokyo Olympics in 2021.
The swimmers were not sanctioned as the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) accepted the argument of Chinese authorities that the positive tests were caused bycontaminated food.
Elsewhere, defending champion Marrit Steenbergen denied 200m champion Mollie O’Callaghan a sprint double as the Dutchwoman won the women’s 100m freestyle.
Olympic champion Hubert Kos won a fierce battle against South Africa’s Pieter Coetze in the men’s 200m backstroke final.
Women’s 200m breaststroke gold went to another reigning Olympic champion, the American Kate Douglass.
She powered to victory in a championships-record 2:18.50, ahead of the Russian world record holder Evgeniia Chikunova (2:19.96) and Kaylene Corbett of South Africa (2:23.52).
