BUDAPEST — The United States broke the world record for the mixed 4x100m medley relay for the second time Wednesday to win world championship gold, just hours after lowering the mark in the heats.

The American quartet of Matt Grevers, Lilly King, Caeleb Dressel and Simone Manuel clocked three minutes 38.56 seconds with Australia taking silver, 2.65sec back.

Canada and China shared bronze after both finished 2.69sec behind.

In the morning heats, the USA shattered the previous record with a time of 3:40.28.

Britain’s Adam Peaty narrowly missed breaking his own world record again as he won the men’s 50m breaststroke gold to complete another sprint double.

Peaty, already a winner over 100m in Budapest, clocked 25.99 seconds over 50m, just 0.04sec short of his record time in Tuesday’s semifinals, with Brazil’s Joao Gomes Junior taking silver, 0.53sec behind.

South Africa’s Cameron van der Burgh, the 2009 and 2013 world champion in the 50m breaststroke, earned bronze.

Britain increased its swimming gold medal tally in Budapest to three with Peaty retaining the two titles he won in Kazan in 2015 to add to Ben Proud’s victory in the men’s 50m butterfly Monday.

The 22-year-old Peaty has been in stunning form this week.

He narrowly failed to beat his own 100m world record of 57.13sec from last year’s Olympic final in Rio, but still won gold Monday with a championship record of 57.47sec.

Chad le Clos won the men’s 200m butterfly gold medal after defeating home favorite Laszlo Cseh, the defending champion.

South Africa’s Le Clos, the 2012 Olympic champion, clocked one minute 53.33 seconds with Hungary’s Cseh, 0.39sec behind, taking silver and Japan’s Daiya Seto earning bronze at 0.88sec.

Italy’s Gabriele Detti was the surprise winner of the men’s 800m freestyle as Chinese superstar Sun Yang finished only fifth.

Detti touched the wall at seven minutes, 40.77 seconds with Wojciech Wojdak of Poland claiming silver at 0.96 back and Italy’s Gregorio Paltrinieri earning bronze at 1.67.

Sun, the gold medalist in the event at the each of the last three world championships, produced an uncharacteristically poor performance to finish 8.10 off Detti’s pace.

Katie Ledecky said defeat in the women’s 200m freestyle final will motivate her “for a couple of years”, after Italy’s Federica Pellegrini snatched gold.

Pellegrini touched the wall first at one minute, 54.73 seconds with American Ledecky, the reigning world and Olympic champion, and Australia’s Emma McKeon sharing silver as they both clocked 1:55.18.

Having become the first female swimmer to win 12 world titles with victory in the 1500m freestyle final Tuesday, Ledecky had been the favorite in the 200m final, but lost on the wall.

This is the first time in 13 finals, spanning three world championships and four years, that Ledecky has not finished with a gold medal and she says the defeat will motivate her for years to come. — AFP