Fran Halsall misses out on World Swimming Championships medal

Fran Halsall missed out on a medal by six-hundreths of a second as the Briton came joint fourth in the World Swimming Championships 100m freestyle final.

Halsall was the quickest qualifier but was edged out by joint winners Jeanette Ottesen and Aliaksandra as Herasimenia Ranomi Kromowidjojo finished third.

American Ryan Lochte won the 200m backstroke and helped the United States to the 4x200m freestyle relay title.

He has now won four golds at the championships to take his total to 11.

Earlier in the week, the 26-year-old won the 200m individual medley and 200m freestyle events.

Lochte is still way behind compatriot Michael Phelps, who now has 24 World Championships golds having swum the first leg of the relay. However, he moved ahead of Australian Grant Hackett and is level with another Australian, Ian Thorpe.

"Everyone did their own part. We went out there and just did our best, that's all we did and we came out with the win," said Lochte, who stormed ahead of French swimmer Fabien Gilot on the final leg.

Halsall, who clocked 53.72 seconds, said it "hurt" to miss out on a medal by only six-hundreths of a second after Dutch swimmer Kromowidjojo took bronze in 53.66, with Dane Ottesen and Herasimenia of Belarus clocking 53.45.

"I'm really disappointed but what can you do," the 21-year-old European 100m free champion from Southport, who has suffered with ankle injuries this year, told BBC Sport.

"I'm lucky to be here with the year I've had so anything is a bonus. Swimming so fast last night [in the semi-finals] is a good sign for the future. I can build on this now.

"It hurts a little to come fourth and not swim the time you want, but it will give me a lot of motivation for next year."

Britain also missed out on medals in the men's 200m breaststroke final, with Michael Jamieson finishing fifth and Bath-training partner Andrew Willis coming home in eighth. Hungary's Daniel Gyurta won the event in a time of 2:08.41, with Japan's Olympic gold medallist Kosuke Kitajima having to settle for silver while Germany's Christian Vom Lehn took bronze.

The British quartet of Ross Davenport, David Carry, Jak Scott and Robbie Renwick came sixth in the final of the 4x200m free which was won by the Americans. France took silver while host nation China claimed bronze.

There was good news for fellow British swimmer Elizabeth Simmonds, who reached the final of the 200m backstroke.

The 20-year-old came third in her semi-final, but her time of 2:08.79 meant that she scraped into the final as eighth fastest. Melissa Franklin of the United States was the fastest after she recorded a time of 2:05.90.

Briton Adam Brown, who was fourth fastest going into the 50m freestyle semi-finals, failed to reach the final after touching in 22.21. He had earlier swam 22.08.

Rebecca Soni of the United States won the women's 200m breaststroke title in a time of 2:21.47, with Russia's Yuliya Efimova finishing in silver spot and Canada's Martha McCabe in third.