Barcelona, Aug 2 : World record holder Liu Zige won the gold in the final of the women's 200 metre butterfly in the World Swimming Championships here.

The Chinese led the entire race and held off a strong challenge of home favourite Mireia Belmonte Garcia, who had momentarily threatened to overtake her in the final lap Thursday, reports Xinhua.

Belmonte swam the third lap faster that Liu Zige but the new World Champion was able to find depths of courage in the last 50 metres to win, timing 2:04.59, under two-tenths of a second ahead of Belmonte-Garcia. Hungarian Katinka Hosszu took bronze.

Meanwhile, there was disappointment for reigning Olympic and World Champion Jiao Liuyang, who could only finish sixth despite having clocked the fastest times of this and last year.(IANS)