Rome: Hungary's Daniel Gyurta surged from behind to snatch a surprise gold medal in the men's 200 metres breaststroke final at the world championships on Friday.
Gyurta was trailing in last place at the halfway point and sixth at the final turn but he pulled off a sizzling last 50 to clinch a tight race by a fingernail's length in two minutes 7.64 seconds.
Cancer survivor Eric Shanteau of the United States was only 0.01 of a second back in second place.
"When I was 10 metres from the wall I saw Shanteau was still in front of me and at five I started to concentrate on my technique and put all my power into my strokes," Gyurta told reporters.
"You can see that it worked."
Australia's Christian Sprenger, who set a world record of 2:07.31 in Thursday's semis, and Lithuania's Giedrius Titenis both picked up the bronze medal.
Sprenger's compatriot Brenton Rickard had his nose in front in the middle but ended up off the podium in fifth.
"You tend to tighten up a little in the breaststroke. You go from swimming like you're 10 feet tall to swimming like you're three feet tall," Shanteau said. "That's kind of what happened to me in the last 10-15."
Bureau Report
First Published: Saturday, August 01, 2009, 08:47