China’s Qin Haiyang set a new men’s 200m breaststroke world record time of 2min, 05.48sec on Friday, winning gold at the world championships in Japan.
The win gave Qin an unprecedented clean sweep of breaststroke golds at a single world championships, having also won the 50m and 100m events earlier in the week in Fukuoka.
Qin finished ahead of previous record holder Zac Stubblety-Cook of Australia, who clocked 2:06.40, and third-place American Matt Fallon, on 2:07.74.
Qin powered into the lead early in the race and was never seriously challenged.
France’s Leon Marchand had originally intended to compete in the event but he dropped out citing fatigue.
Marchand has been in unstoppable form in Fukuoka, winning the 200m and 400m individual medley events and the 200m butterfly.
