• American teenager wins record six gold medals in Barcelona
• Great Britain have only Fran Halsall's bronze to celebrate
The American teenager Missy Franklin became the first woman to win six golds at a single world championships when she helped the United States to victory in the 4x100m medley relay on Sunday.
The 18-year-old swam the opening, backstroke leg in the hilltop pool in Barcelona and the USA triumph followed her titles in 100m and 200m backstroke, 200m freestyle and the 4x100m and 4x200m freestyle relays. She was fourth in Friday's 100m freestyle.
"It hurt really, really bad but now we're all done and we're all super excited," Franklin said. "I'm not really sure where that came from but I'm really happy with that. I knew I had to get out there for my team. We had really tough competition in that race, so we were sitting there in the ready room and we said, 'No matter what happens, we're just going to do our best and have fun and we can't let each other down if we do that'."
Franklin's sixth gold is one more than the record of five she jointly held with her compatriot Tracy Caulkins and Australia's Libby Trickett. She also joins Michael Phelps, Mark Spitz and the East German Kristin Otto as the only swimmers to capture as many as six golds at either worlds or an Olympics.
After her three world titles at the 2011 championships in Shanghai, Franklin is also tied for the most golds overall – with Trickett on nine.
Franklin, though, was not even named as the top female swimmer of the meet. That award went to her fellow American Katie Ledecky, who won four golds and set two world records. She edged out Franklin based on a formula that does not count the relays and gives bonus points for world marks.
Fran Halsall secured Great Britain's only medal of the championships when she came third in the 50m freestyle behind Ranomi Kromowidjojo and Cate Campbell. The 23-year-old endured a torrid time when she failed to collect a medal at last year's Olympics and on Saturday night she was locked out of the top three in the 50m butterfly, finishing fourth. However, she returned to the Palau Sant Jordi on Sundaynight to take bronze in 24.30sec.
It is her second world championship medal following her silver in the 100m freestyle at Rome 2009. Two years later at the Shanghai worlds she suffered the disappointment of two fourth places but there was regret on Sunday night that she did not win gold.
Halsall said: "I'm a bit disappointed to be honest. A medal's nice but I wanted gold, so bitter-sweet really. I'm happy to be on the podium but I would have liked to have been a bit faster. I think it was more about me erasing my demons of 2011 and then fifth in the Olympics in 2012."
Fighting back the tears, the Southport-born swimmer added: "It's not easy when you've come fourth and fifth and stand there and be like 'I've come fourth and fifth so many times' and you always have that little bit in your mind but you've got to try to erase it and get on with it and do the job."
Halsall's medal followed Daniel Wallace's seventh place in the 400m individual medley as he lowered his personal best for the second time on his senior international debut, clocking 4min 13.72sec. Reported by guardian.co.uk 6 hours ago.
• Great Britain have only Fran Halsall's bronze to celebrate
The American teenager Missy Franklin became the first woman to win six golds at a single world championships when she helped the United States to victory in the 4x100m medley relay on Sunday.
The 18-year-old swam the opening, backstroke leg in the hilltop pool in Barcelona and the USA triumph followed her titles in 100m and 200m backstroke, 200m freestyle and the 4x100m and 4x200m freestyle relays. She was fourth in Friday's 100m freestyle.
"It hurt really, really bad but now we're all done and we're all super excited," Franklin said. "I'm not really sure where that came from but I'm really happy with that. I knew I had to get out there for my team. We had really tough competition in that race, so we were sitting there in the ready room and we said, 'No matter what happens, we're just going to do our best and have fun and we can't let each other down if we do that'."
Franklin's sixth gold is one more than the record of five she jointly held with her compatriot Tracy Caulkins and Australia's Libby Trickett. She also joins Michael Phelps, Mark Spitz and the East German Kristin Otto as the only swimmers to capture as many as six golds at either worlds or an Olympics.
After her three world titles at the 2011 championships in Shanghai, Franklin is also tied for the most golds overall – with Trickett on nine.
Franklin, though, was not even named as the top female swimmer of the meet. That award went to her fellow American Katie Ledecky, who won four golds and set two world records. She edged out Franklin based on a formula that does not count the relays and gives bonus points for world marks.
Fran Halsall secured Great Britain's only medal of the championships when she came third in the 50m freestyle behind Ranomi Kromowidjojo and Cate Campbell. The 23-year-old endured a torrid time when she failed to collect a medal at last year's Olympics and on Saturday night she was locked out of the top three in the 50m butterfly, finishing fourth. However, she returned to the Palau Sant Jordi on Sundaynight to take bronze in 24.30sec.
It is her second world championship medal following her silver in the 100m freestyle at Rome 2009. Two years later at the Shanghai worlds she suffered the disappointment of two fourth places but there was regret on Sunday night that she did not win gold.
Halsall said: "I'm a bit disappointed to be honest. A medal's nice but I wanted gold, so bitter-sweet really. I'm happy to be on the podium but I would have liked to have been a bit faster. I think it was more about me erasing my demons of 2011 and then fifth in the Olympics in 2012."
Fighting back the tears, the Southport-born swimmer added: "It's not easy when you've come fourth and fifth and stand there and be like 'I've come fourth and fifth so many times' and you always have that little bit in your mind but you've got to try to erase it and get on with it and do the job."
Halsall's medal followed Daniel Wallace's seventh place in the 400m individual medley as he lowered his personal best for the second time on his senior international debut, clocking 4min 13.72sec. Reported by guardian.co.uk 6 hours ago.