France, July 28 -- Maxime Grousset claimed the men's 50m butterfly on Monday tofurnish France with its first gold medal at the 2025 world swimming championships in Singapore and smash his own fastest time over the distance.

The 26-year-old finished in 22.48 seconds. Noe Ponti from Switzerland was second and Italy's Thomas Ceccon took bronze.

On Sunday,Grousset won his semi-final in 22.61 seconds to set a French record.

"I knew it was going to be tough race," Grousset told France TV. "But I believed that I could do it until the very end. I stuck to what I had worked on.

"At the 25-metre mark, I saw that Noe was ahead of me and I said to myself: 'Stay as you are, stay tall'. The last stroke was the one that mattered. It was a fabulous r...