Ben Proud won Great Britain's first gold medal of the FINA World Aquatics Championships with victory in the men's 50m freestyle on Friday.
The 27-year-old (21.32) just about managed to hold off the USA's Michael Andrew (21.41) to clinch the title, while France's Maxime Grousset (21.57) took the bronze medal.
Proud stormed to victory in the absence of Caeleb Dressel, and the Brit has admitted that he did not expect to be celebrating World Championship gold at the start of the day.
The fastest man in the world (on water!) 🥇🔥@BenProud finishes off a quite stunning start to clock a 21.32 and become world champion over 50m Freestyle 🙌💪 pic.twitter.com/l1TeMlmzOw
— British Swimming (@britishswimming) June 24, 2022
"To come top of the podium, it's really special. If you said at the start of the week, I was going to win this, I wouldn't have believed you. I'm thrilled," Proud told the media after the race.
"This is a medal for everyone back at home. Everyone who has got me past the last 12 months - I just have to say thank you to everyone. It was a great race and great field; really happy with that. Budapest is a beautiful place, great fans and really chuffed."
Lewis Burras finished seventh for GB in the 50m freestyle with a time of 21.83, and there was further success for Katie Ledecky on Friday, as the American made it five consecutive 800m freestyle world titles with 8:08.04.
Ben Knapton
