Australia’s Ariarne Titmus and Japan’s Yui Ohashi won their second gold medals in Tokyo while Britain picked up their third swimming gold with an impressive victory in the men’s 4x200m freestyle relay on a thrilling day of action in the pool on Wednesday.

After losing to Titmus for a second time in Tokyo with a disappointing fifth-place finish in the 200m freestyle, there was some consolation for Katie Ledecky with the American winning the inaugural 1,500 freestyle gold to capture her sixth Olympic title.

World record holder Kristof Milak of Hungary powered to the men’s butterfly 200m gold. His time of 1:51.25 was an Olympic record, surpassing Michael Phelps’ mark from an event he once dominated.

The women’s 200m freestyle, part two of Titmus’s “duel in the pool” with Ledecky, turned instead into a battle with Hong Kong’s Siobhan Haughey with Canada’s Penny Oleksiak third.

Titmus won in a time of 1:53.50 while Ledecky, the defending gold medallist, finished a distant 1.71 behind the Australian.

Once again the 20-year-old Titmus, dubbed ‘The Terminator’, delivered a blistering final lap — she had been in third place at the 150m turn with Haughey in the lead.

Titmus had beaten Ledecky to gold in the 400m freestyle on Monday and she becomes the first Australian woman to complete the 200m-400m Olympic double since Shane Gould at the 1972 Munich Games.

Scott ‘gutted’

Ohashi, who won the women’s 400m medley on Sunday, produced her own double with victory in the 200m medley ahead of Americans Alex Walsh and Kate Douglass.

Britain’s success in the pool continued with the quartet of Dean, Duncan Scott, James Guy and Matthew Richards coming within touching distance of a world record in the relay. The British team won in six minutes, 58.58 — just three hundredths shy of the world record set by the US in 2009. “It was so close to the world record in the end, if anything, I’m a bit gutted,” said Scott.

China earned their third diving gold medal in Tokyo when Wang Zongyuan and Xie Siyi triumphed in the men’s 3 metre synchronised springboard on Wednesday.

World records

The Netherlands and China posted world best times to win gold in the men’s and women’s quad sculls races.

China clinched the women’s quad sculls in 6:05.13, more than six seconds ahead of silver medallists Poland and bronze winners Australia.

On the men’s side, the Netherlands won gold — one of four medals they picked up during the day’s competition — in 5:32.03.