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BUDAPEST, July 25-- Chinese swimmers Sun Yang and Xu Jiayu jumped into the spotlight at the 17th FINA World Championships with their respective breakthrough gold medal here on Tuesday, a day with three world records beaten in the Hungarian capital. Xu, who finished atop in Monday's heats and semifinals, built his leading position from the start and claimed men's 100m backstroke champion with 52.44, the first ever victory in this event for Chinese male swimmers at worlds. Xu said a higher target crossed his mind before the final. "I performed quite well in the semifinals, so it was normal for me to have some ideas in my mind. Actually I aimed at rewriting the world record," he said. Xu beat Matt Grevers and Ryan Murphy, two Olympic gold medalists from the United States. The 2017 champion Grevers finished runner-up with a deficit of four hundredths of a second, while the 2016 champion Murphy was placed third at 52.59. Sun, fresh from his 400m freestyle win here, claimed his first ever men's 200m freestyle world champion with 1:44.39. He only ranked seventh after 50m, then sixth after 100m, before making an aggressive charge for his personal breakthrough with a new Asian record. With his titles in the 800 and 1500m from previous worlds, Sun now has completed the sweep in all men's middle and long distance events and is also the Olympic gold medalist in 200m, 400m and 1500m freestyle. "I feel happy about the gold medal. Actually I didn't expect such a result, and just wanted to work on every detail. Today my dream has come true," said Sun, who will appear in 800m free final on Wednesday evening. | 
