Golden beginning for impressive Sun, Ledecky

China's Sun Yang ticked the first box on the way to a possible treble of freestyle golds when he comfortably won the 400 metres at the world swimming championships here on Sunday.

The 22-year-old, who was Olympic champion in London last year, led from the start to improve on his silver medal from Shanghai two years ago with a time of three minutes 41.59 seconds.

Kosuke Hagino of Japan took silver, more than three seconds behind in 3:44.82 and American Connor Jaeger won the bronze in 3:44:85. Sun, who also won the 1,500m gold in London, is bidding to join Australia's Grant Hackett as the only men to win world championship freestyle titles at 400m, 800m and 1,500m.

American teenager Katie Ledecky stormed to gold in the 400 metres freestyle, becoming only the second woman after Italy's Federica Pellegrini to break four minutes.

The 16-year-old Ledecky, gold medallist at 800 metres at last year's London Olympics, was on course to break Pellegrini's world record of 3:59.15 but slipped off the pace in the final 100 metres to finish in a still-blistering time of 3:59.82. Spain's Melanie Costa Schmid lifted the home support inside the hilltop Palau Sant Jordi by taking silver in 4:02.47 and Lauren Boyle of New Zealand was third in 4:03.89.

Jeremy Stravius produced a scintillating final leg as France stormed from behind to see off the United States, Russia and Australia and steal 4x100 relay gold. Olympic champions in London last year, the French were fourth when Stravius dived into the water but he hauled in American James Feigen, Russia's Danila Izotov and James Roberts of Australia to touch in three minutes 11.18 seconds.The United States matched their silver from London in a time of 3:11.42 and Russia pipped Australia to the bronze in 3:11.44.

Fabien Gilot's contribution on the third leg was also significant as he was the only man to go under 47 seconds, recording a split time of 46.9 compared to Stravius's 47.59.

In the women’s section, Megan Romano swam a blistering final leg to overhaul Australia's Alicia Coutts and snatch gold for US in the 4x100 metres relay. Romano put up a split time of 52.60 seconds, with only Cate Campbell going quicker with 52.33 leading off for Australia, as the Americans improved on their silver behind Netherlands at the previous championships in Shanghai two years ago.

Australia, Olympic champions in London last year, led until the final 50 metres through Campbell, her sister Bronte and Emma McKeon but Romano was too good for Coutts and touched in three minutes and 32.31 seconds.

The formidable Australian swimmers finished in 3:32.43 and Netherlands, who pipped the U.S. to silver in London, were third in 3:35.77 ahead of Sweden.

Pooja 44th

India’s Pooja Alva and Sandeep Sejwal dished out decent performance during their heats in the morning but that was not enough for them to match some of the world’s best.

Karnataka’s Pooja, competing in the 100M butterfly event, clocked 1:05.70 to finish 44th while Delhi’s Sejwal timed 1:02.69 in the 100M breaststroke event to end 45th.