Liam Tancock wins 50m backstroke gold in Shanghai

Liam Tancock secured Great Britain's third gold medal at the World Championships in Shanghai with a dominant swim in the 50m backstroke.

The defending champion, who has now won five medals in four World Championships, touched in 24.50 just ahead of France's Camille Lacourt.

Britain's Hannah Miley produced a superb display in the 400m individual medley to win silver in 4:34.22.

"This is the closest thing to the Olympics. I'm so happy," Miley said.

"I saw the Chinese girl coming back and my little legs couldn't kick fast enough but I managed to hold on," said Miley, who finished second to the American Elizabeth Beisel, who won gold in a time of 4:31.78.

"It shows that sometimes it is not all about the facilities but about great coaching and I have certainly got that."

Britain's Fran Halsall was forced to settle for another fourth-place finish, this time in the 50m freestyle.

The gold went to Sweden's Therese Alshammer, who ended her long wait for World Championship gold after winning in a time of 24.14, narrowly ahead of Ranomi Kromowidjojo of the Netherlands.

But an upbeat Halsall insisted she was pleased with her performance.

"I am not too disappointed to be honest," Halsall told BBC Sport.

"I didn't expect to do anything in this event so if I can get some good training in over Christmas then maybe I can convert some of these fourths and fifths into medals."

British Swimming national performance director Michael Scott admits the meet has been a "rollercoaster" for GB but believes the team can enjoy even more success at London 2012.

"It has been a challenging meet, at times a rollercoaster, but every team has had their highs and lows," said Scott.

"The strength of our team is its positivity and resilience. We didn't crumble and got stronger as the meet went on. We pulled together as a team and we have to maintain that for next year."

China's Sun Yang set a new world record in the men's 1500m freestyle, finishing in a time of 14:34.14.

Sun did not look like breaking swimming's longest-standing world record but, spurred on by his vociferous home support, Sun toppled Australian Grant Hackett's 10-year-old mark of 14:34.56.

American Ryan Lochte added a fifth gold medal to his collection after he destroyed the field to win the 400m individual medley in a time of 4:07.13, just four seconds outside Michael Phelps' world record time.

Britain's Roberto Pavoni finished eighth.

In the men's 4x100m medley relay, the final event of the competition, Great Britain produced a good swim to finish sixth as the United States won in a time of 3:32.6. Australia claimed the silver and Germany the bronze.