World Aquatic Championships: Ben Proud wins Great Britain's first gold in 50m freestyle final

Ben Proud won Great Britain's first gold medal of the World Aquatic Championships with an impressive performance in the 50m freestyle final.

Following Olympic champion Caeleb Dressel's withdrawal from the competition, Proud was favourite to take the men's title in Budapest.

Michael Andrew of the United States finished second, with Maxime Grousset of France in third place.

"To come top of the podium, it's really special," said 27-year-old Proud.

"If you said at the start of the week, I was going to win this, I wouldn't have believed you. I'm thrilled."

American Katie Ledecky made history by winning her fifth consecutive 800m freestyle world title with a dominant display in the women's final.

The 25-year-old sealed victory with a time of eight minutes and eight seconds - four seconds faster than her gold medal time at the Tokyo Olympic Games last year and the fifth fastest of all time.

Kiah Melverton of Australia, who finished second ahead of Italy's Simona Quadarella in third, was 10 seconds behind Ledecky.

"It's always hard, you want it to hurt, especially at the end of the week," said Ledecky. "I'm really happy with that result and really excited for the future."

Ledecky had already won two individual gold medals this week in both the 400m and 1500m freestyle, plus a team title with the USA in the 4x200m freestyle relay.

She now has a tally of 22 medals across five World Championships since 2013.

In the men's 50m freestyle final Proud made a rapid start off the blocks to give himself a strong advantage over the rest of the field, and claimed victory with a time of 21.32 seconds. GB's Lewis Burras finished seventh.

"This is a medal for everyone back at home," Proud said. "Everyone who has got me past the last 12 months - I just have to say thank you to everyone."

Five years ago, Proud pulled off a shock 50m butterfly win at the World Championships in the same pool and said it was "great to be racing" in the Hungarian capital once again.

He added: "It was a great race and great field; really happy with that. Budapest is a beautiful place, great fans and really chuffed."

Australia clocked a new world record of three minutes 19.38 seconds in the final of the mixed 4x100m freestyle as Jack Cartwright, Kyle Chambers, Madison Wilson and Mollie O'Callaghan collected the country's sixth gold medal of the competition.

The United States, who had won the event on three consecutive occasions - also with a world record time - could only manage third place. Canada finished with the silver medal.

Sweden's Sarah Sjostrom took the women's 50m butterfly gold medal for the fourth time in a row, while Hungarian swimmer Kristof Milak was given a rousing reception by the home fans as he won the men's 100m butterfly.