Adlington claims gold for Britain

Rebecca Adlington claimed the gold medal in the 800 metres freestyle with a wonderful swim at the World Championships in Shanghai on Saturday.

The 22-year-old is the reigning Olympic champion and can now add the world title after she overtook defending champion Lotte Friis on the final length. She and Friis fought out a private duel with the Briton winning in eight minutes 17.51 seconds.

The Nova Centurion swimmer was fastest into the final after a time in Friday's heat only she has bettered this year.

It is Adlington's second medal of the competition after she took silver in the 400m freestyle on the first night at the Oriental Sports Centre.

Liam Tancock reminded his rivals they face an almighty battle to wrest his 50m backstroke crown from him when he qualified fastest for Sunday's final. The Loughborough ITC swimmer touched in 24.62.

There was disappointment for Lizzie Simmonds who came seventh in the 200m backstroke. The 20-year-old had also finished seventh over 100m but the four-length race is her speciality. However, sickness reared its head again and Simmonds did not warm up before the race in order to conserve energy.

She finished in 2:08.76, some way below the season's best she set last month which would have been good enough for a medal.

The race was won by 16-year-old American Missy Franklin whose time of 2:05.10 was the third fastest in history, the other two performances ahead of her done in performance-enhancing suits in 2009.

The women's 4x100m medley relay squad came sixth in their final while Fran Halsall, back after her 100m freestyle disappointment where she failed to win a medal, was fifth into the 50m freestyle final.

Kate Haywood just missed the 50m breaststroke final, finishing ninth in the semis.