Adam Peaty
Adam Peaty

World Swimming Championships: Max Litchfield fourth


Great Britain missed out on a medal on day five of the World Championships in Budapest as Max Litchfield finished fourth in the 200 metres individual medley.

Five-time world champion Adam Peaty won his second and Britain's third gold of the 17th World Championships at the Duna Arena on Wednesday night and now has three days off before returning for the men's 4x100 metres medley relay on Sunday.

Litchfield qualified for the 200m individual medley final in third place, but his specialist event is the 400m individual medley and he was not too downbeat at missing out on the podium over four lengths.

Chase Kalisz of the United States took gold in one minute 55.56 seconds, ahead of Japan's Kosuke Hagino, who clocked 1min 56.01secs.

Bronze went to Wang Shun of China in 1:56.28 and Litchfield finished in 1:56.86.

"Coming in here, to go 1:56 three times is better than I could've imagined," the 22-year-old Sheffield swimmer said.

"It's disappointing to come fourth, but it's promising for the rest of the week."

Duncan Scott finished fifth in the 100m freestyle as Caeleb Dressel took gold in 47.17, with fellow American Nathan Adrian finishing with silver in 47.87.

Mehdy Metella of France took bronze in 47.89 and Scott clocked 48.11.

Stirling's Scott, 20, said: "It's not a million miles away from my best, so I'm not that disappointed."

Georgia Davies was eighth in the 50m backstroke, clocking 27.61 as Etiene Medeiros of Brazil won gold in 27.14.

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Britain have three medals - all of them gold - from the first five days of competition.

Peaty won over 50m and 100m breaststroke and Ben Proud was triumphant in the 50m butterfly.

Ross Murdoch will be optimistic of a podium place in the 200m breaststroke after qualifying third fastest for Friday night's final.

Murdoch won his semi-final in 2:07.72. Russia's Anton Chupkov advanced quickest in a European and championship record of 2:07.14, with Japan's Ippei Watanabe second fastest in 2:07.44.

"It's the first time I've been under 2:08 since August 2014. It's nice to be back," the 23-year-old Stirling swimmer said.

"You just let the environment take you. I don't really know how I did the time I did tonight. I just swam the race, stuck to the race plan.

"I've got a decent lane (for the final - lane three). I'm looking forward to it."

Murdoch won Commonwealth Games gold in Glasgow in 2014 ahead of that event's poster boy Michael Jamieson, the London 2012 silver medallist.

And he won the European title in May 2016, but had not qualified in his main event for the Olympics.

Murdoch added: "It's been a pretty up and down road. A lot of crooked alleyways I've been down in terms of my swimming performance.

"I'm happy to have made the team. I said that after the trials. I was absolutely delighted to have made my main event and I was going to do everything to make sure I was in better shape than that. I went 2:09.1."

Molly Renshaw qualified for the women's 200m breaststroke final in seventh place.

Yuliya Efimova, the controversial Russian as she is a convicted drug cheat, advanced in first place in 2:21.49.

Renshaw clocked 2:23.51, while fellow Briton Jocelyn Ulyett is first reserve after being ranked ninth in the semi-finals. Ulyett clocked 2:23.82, just 0.01 behind eighth-ranked Lilly King, the American 100m champion.

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