Phelps breaks through in 200M butterfly

SHANGHAI, July 27 (UPI) -- American Michael Phelps won his first gold medal of the 2011 World Swimming Championships with a victory Wednesday in the 200-meter butterfly.

Phelps, who has won 14 Olympic and 22 World Championship gold medals, had only a relay bronze and a silver in the 200-meter freestyle to show this year before taking the 200 butterfly in 1 minute, 53.24 seconds.

Phelps fell behind Japanese swimmer Takeshi Matsuda on the final turn but powered his way through the final leg of the race to win by two-thirds of a second. Matsuda (1:53.91) took silver and third place was won by China's Wu Peng in 1:54.67.

Italian swimmer Federica Pellegrini claimed the women's 200-meter freestyle by nearly half a second over Australian Kylie Palmer. Pellegrini touched in 1:55.58 and Palmer was timed in 1:56.04. French swimmer Camille Muffat took third (1:56.1).

Pellegrini, 22, earlier won the 400-meter freestyle and is the first woman to win both races in consecutive World Championships.

Sun Yang, swimming for China, won the men's 800-meter freestyle in 7:38.57 with Canadian Ryan Cochrane (7:41.86) second and Hungary's Gergo Kis (7:44.94).

The 50-meter breaststroke went to Brazil's Felipe Da Silva in 27.01 with Italy's Fabio Scozzoli second at 27.17 and South African Cameron Van Der Burgh (27.19) taking the bronze.