China's Ye Shiwen celebrates with the national flag after winning the gold medal in the women's 200 meters individual medley at the 14th FINA World Championships in Shanghai yesterday.

Roared on by the home crowd, teenager Ye Shiwen produced a devastating freestyle leg to land China's first swimming gold medal at the FINA World Championships in Shanghai by winning the women's 200 meters individual medley yesterday.

The 15-year-old, who displayed her explosive freestyle speed in the heats and semifinals on Sunday, stormed home from lane three as former world champion Ariana Kukors and Olympic champion Stephanie Rice battled it out for the minor placings.

Ye clocked two minutes 8.90 seconds to bring the noise of the crowd to a deafening crescendo that was complemented by two large drums banging out an irrepressible rhythm.

"Before the race I was very nervous," she told reporters. "I'm weak in the butterfly so I was trailing in the first leg.

"At one moment I thought I couldn't catch up with the leaders so I just gave it all I had. With about 20 meters to go I was quite sure I could win."

Australia's Alicia Coutts grabbed her second silver medal inside 80 minutes when she finished in 2:09.00. The 23-year-old was also runner-up to Dana Vollmer of the United States in the 100 butterfly.

American Kukors, the world record holder, was timed at 2:09.12 as she pipped fourth-placed Rice for bronze.

Vollmer won her 100 butterfly race in 56.87, just 0.07 ahead of Coutts, with Lu Ying of China 0.19 back in third.

It was a disappointing finish for the 23-year-old Rice who had qualified fastest after a last desperate lunge for the wall in the semifinals. However it was at least a return to form on the global stage for Rice, who has had a frustrating two years.

The emotions of the past month came back in full force when Brazilian Cesar Cielo, battling a doping ordeal, won the 50 meters butterfly yesterday.

Cielo propped himself up on a lane rope, looked up at the scoreboard and began sobbing.

Last week, Cielo was cleared of wrongdoing by the Court of Arbitration for Sport after a hearing in Shanghai.

"It's been a tough time for me, something that I didn't expect at all for my career," Cielo said. "But I had to deal with it and it feels like the biggest relief of my life to overcome something like that and be able to compete."

Cielo, who will also attempt to defend his 50 and 100 freestyle titles later this week, finished his race in 23.10 seconds. Matthew Targett took the silver in 23.28 and Australian teammate Geoff Huegill, who has come out of a four-year retirement, took the bronze in 23.35.

"This gold medal has a different feeling from the other ones," Cielo said. "This was the hardest I've had in my life. It was a time to test not just my talent in swimming but how much I could take and still stand up so I'm really proud of myself for being able to do so."

Cielo cried again during the medal ceremony, and the capacity crowd at the Oriental Sports Center responded by applauding in encouragement.

Michael Phelps qualified only fifth in the 200 freestyle semifinals, which was led by French teenager Yannick Agnel. Germany's Paul Biedermann, who handed Phelps a stinging defeat in this event at the last worlds in Rome two years ago, qualified second, and Phelps' teammate Ryan Lochte was third.