Britain's James Guy struck gold at the world swimming championships on Tuesday with a shock win in the 200m freestyle final as he beat China's Sun Yang at the wall.

The 19-year-old Guy touched at one minute 45.14secs to win gold and leave some big names in his trail.

He was just 0.06secs ahead of China's long-distance expert Sun who had to settle for silver while Germany's world record-holder Paul Biedermann took bronze at 0.24secs.

Ryan Lochte of the USA, who had led early on, was fourth at 0.69secs back.

"I never thought I'd race Ryan Lochte head to head like that, he is one of my heroes," grinned Guy, who is making his world championship debut in Kazan.

"So to race him head-to-head like that was amazing and to touch my hand on the wall first and be world champion hasn't sunk in quite yet, I am so happy."

The teenager adds gold to the silver he won on Sunday in the men's 400m freestyle final when Sun retained his world title from Barcelona two years ago.
Source: AFP