Barcelona, Spain – American Missy Franklin captured her third gold medal of the 2013 World Swimming Championships, finishing first in Wednesday's women's 200-meter freestyle.
Franklin had already won gold in the 4x100-meter freestyle relay and the 100- meter backstroke. She pulled out of the 50-meter backstroke semifinals earlier on Wednesday in an effort to concentrate on the 200 free.
The four-time Olympic gold medalist in London trailed after the first 50 meters on Wednesday, but moved in front halfway through the race and touched the wall in a time of 1 minute, 54.81 seconds. She had finished fourth in the 200-meter freestyle at the London Games.
Italy's Federica Pellegrini, the world record holder at the distance, was .33 seconds behind in second place, while France's Camille Muffat picked up the bronze.
Elsewhere, South Africa's Chad Le Clos repeated his stunning Olympic victory in the men's 200-meter butterfly. He edged Michael Phelps for the gold in London and on Wednesday finished in a time of 1:54.32, .69 seconds in front of Poland's Pawel Korzeniowski.
Another South African, Cameron Van Der Burgh, took gold in the men's 50-meter breaststroke, a non-Olympic distance, after edging Australian Christian Sprenger by just 1/100th of a second.
The final gold of the day went to China's Sun Yang in the 800-meter freestyle. He touched in a time of 7 minutes, 41.36 seconds, more than two seconds ahead of American Michael McBroom.
American Ryan Lochte, coming off a disappointing fourth-place finish in Tuesday's 200-meter freestyle, was the top qualifier in the semifinals of the 200-meter individual medley. That final is on tap for Thursday.
The 100-meter freestyle is also scheduled for Thursday, with the top qualifying times in the semifinals going to Americans Nathan Adrian and James Feigen.
Receive your weekly recap of all the happenings around the world of sports.