(MENAFN- The Peninsula) AFP
Budapest: China's Sun Yang won the men's 400m freestyle final in emphatic style at the world aquatic championships Sunday, as his bitter Rio Games rival Mack Horton trailed home a distant second.
Sun clocked 3min 41.38sec to claim gold well ahead of the Olympic champion Horton, who had previously dubbed his rival a dope cheat, as the Australian took silver some 2.47 seconds adrift.
Italy's Gabriele Detti took bronze at 2.55sec. It was sweet revenge for Sun, who splashed the water and gave a triumphant roar, having been beaten by Horton in the 400m final at last year's Rio Olympics following a war of words between the pair.
Horton had dubbed Sun a ‘drugs cheat' after the Chinese served a three-month ban in 2014 after testing positive for a stimulant.
In turn, Sun accused his Australian rival of ‘dirty tricks' to try and put the freestyle specialist off his game.
Sun's victory in Budapest means he now has eight world gold medals spanning four championships dating back to Shanghai in 2011.
He has now won the 400m world title at each of the last three championships after his Barcelona 2013 and Kazan 2015 triumphs.
Meanwhile, Katie Ledecky of the United States made history by becoming the first woman to win a third straight 400m freestyle gold at the world aquatic championships.
The 20-year-old clocked three minutes, 58.34 seconds, setting a new championships record, with compatriot Leah Smith second at 3.20secs back and China's Li Bingjie, who is only 15, third at 04.91.
Ledecky's time better the previous championship record which she set just hours earlier in Sunday morning's heat.
This is Ledecky's third straight world title over 400m after her wins at the Barcelona 2013 and Kazan 2015 world championships.
Her time was nearly two seconds slower than the world record she set in winning the Olympic title last year. It was the first of six freestyle events for Ledecky in Budapest.
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