China’s Pan Zhanle backed up his world record in the relays with a victory all of his own on Thursday, while American Claire Curzan became the first swimmer to claim two individual gold medals on a starring night for teenagers at the World Aquatics Championships.

The 19-year-old Pan won the men’s 100-metre freestyle at Aspire Dome, four days after swimming the fastest two laps in history with a time of 46.80 seconds in the lead-off leg of China’s gold medal-winning 4x100 free relay team.

He didn’t go quite as fast the second time around, but it was good enough for gold. Pan touched in 47.53 to stamp himself as one of the top contenders heading to the Paris Olympics.

Curzan, also 19, used a blistering start to claim gold in the women's 50 backstroke, adding to her victory in the 100 back. She picked up a third gold as part of the winning 4x100 mixed medley relay team.

Both Pan and Curzan took advantage of many big stars skipping the Doha championships to focus on the Olympics.

The 100 free Olympic champion, American Caeleb Dressel, and 2023 world champion Kyle Chalmers of Australia are not at these worlds.

Ditto for Australia's Kaylee McKeown and American Regan Smith, who went 1-2 in all three women's backstroke events at last summer's championships in Fukuoka.

China claimed its second gold of the night in the final event, winning the women's 4x200 free relay in 7 minutes, 47.26 seconds with the team of Ai Yanhan, Gong Zhenqi, Li Bingjie and Yang Peiqi. Britain claimed the silver at 7:50.90, with the bronze going to Australia in 7:51.41.

China now has four swimming gold medals and 20 victories overall at the World Aquatics Championships, more than double any other country.

Also on Thursday, Hong Kong's Siobhan Haughey qualified second fastest for the final of the women's 100 freestyle. (AP)