Olympic champion Yannick Agnel has added the men's 200m freestyle world title to his growing collection at the swimming world championships as he demolished a powerful field.
France's Agnel clocked 1min 44.20secs in the final, more than a second ahead of Conor Dwyer of the USA, who finished second at 1.12 back with Russia's Danila Izotov 1.39sec adrift in third.
This was Agnel's second gold at the eight-day long Barcelona championships after Sunday's victory in the 4x100m freestyle relay.
Just as he did in the London 2012 final, Agnel led from the first turn and was well clear of the field by the final length leaving Dwyer, his training partner since moving to the USA after his Olympic triumph, in his wake.
"This is as beautiful as London," beamed the 21-year-old Frenchman who is coached by Bob Bowman, the American who coached 18-time Olympic gold medallist Michael Phelps.
"I wasn't expecting this, I said to myself I will swim as I did in London and see what happens.
"All my family are here.
"I didn't see anything during the race."
The towering Frenchman said it was "magic" to win the final by more than a second and had answered any critics of his move from France to Baltimore, to work with Bowman.
"I said even if I came back with silver I would still have answered them and to get gold provides them with an even better response. Perfect in fact," he said.
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