MATT Richards won gold for Great Britain in the 200m freestyle at the World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka, Japan to become a world champion for the first time.
Richards stormed to gold ahead of GB teammate Tom Dean who took silver and South Korea’s Hwang Sun-woo who claimed bronze.
The Droitwich swimmer was just 0.02 seconds ahead of Olympic champion Dean as the GB pair won Britain’s first medals of the Championships.
Richards said: “I am pretty tired but over the moon. It was one of the most stacked fields in a long time.
“It’s amazing to come away with the one-two for GB again. I’m just really happy we managed to get that done, hopefully, it’s the first of many.”
The 20-year-old qualified second fastest for the semi-finals behind American swimmer Luke Hobson and was fifth quickest in qualifying for the final.
And Richards saved his best performance for the final to claim gold in a time of 1 minute 44.30 seconds.
Richards won Olympic gold at Tokyo 2020 in the 4x200m freestyle and is a two-time European champion.
