Gregorio Paltrinieri set a new European record as he won gold in the 800 metres freestyle at the world championships in South Korea on Wednesday. The 24-year-old, the reigning 1,500m world and Olympic champion, dominated the race and clocked a time of 7:39.27 to come home ahead of Norway's Henrik Christiansen and France's

"I'm over the moon," said the Italian, "this is a beautiful race, it's been a long time since I did an 800 like this. For this I'm really happy".