Sexton was delighted after breaking Britain's gold drought Photos from Barcelona

Sexton's gold was the first won by a British woman at a major championship for over 40 years.

There was a surprise in the last event of the day as favourite Michael Phelps was beaten into second by American team-mate Ian Crocker in the men's 100m butterfly final.

To add insult to injury Crocker also erased the world record the 18-year-old American sensation had set 24 hours earlier in the semi-finals, clocking a time of 50.98 seconds.

Sexton's victory came in the women's 200m backstroke final as she produced a storming final length to edge out Margaret Hoelzer in a time of two minutes 08.74 seconds.

It was the first time a British woman had ever won individual gold at the World Swimming Championships, and the first major gold since Anita Lonsbrough took the Olympic 200m breaststroke title in 1960.

Medals table

British swimmers also won a silver and a bronze medal, with Mark Foster taking silver behind fellow veteran Alexander Popov from Russia in the 50m freestyle.

The bronze went to Rebecca Cooke in a thrilling women's 800m freestyle final.

The first two were neck and neck throughout the race, with Hannah Stockbauer eventually winning by less than a second from Diana Munz.

Dutch swimmer Inge De Bruijn broke the championship record on her way to victory in the women's 50m butterfly final, while China claimed the women's 4x100m individual medley relay.