BARCELONA, Spain, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- World record holder Liu Zige won the gold medal in the final of the women's 200 meter butterfly in the world swimming championships in Barcelona on Thursday night.
The Chinese led for all of the race and held off the strong challenge of home favorite Mireia Belmonte Garcia, who had momentarily threatened to overtake her in the final lap of the race.
Belmonte swam the third lap faster that Liu Zige, who had looked to be tiring, but the new world champion was able to find depths of courage in the last 50 meters to claim gold medal with a time of 2:04.59, just under two tenths of a second ahead of Belmonte-Garcia. Hungarian Katinka Hosszu, who had previously won gold in the 200 meter medley, took bronze.
Meanwhile there was disappointment for reigning world and Olympic champion, Jiao Liuyang, who could only finish in sixth place, despite having clocked the fastest times of this and last year.