Thrilling gold gives Mack Horton last laugh over Sun Yang

Finally, Mack Horton has been able to step up to the podium at the world swimming titles after steering Australia's 4x200m freestyle men's team to a stunning victory.

After his extraordinary medal ceremony protest against China's Sun Yang, Horton happily took pride of place on the podium alongside teammates Clyde Lewis, Kyle Chalmers and Alex Graham as they received relay gold on Friday night.

Horton proved the difference in a see-sawing relay final as anchor, giving Australia victory in seven minutes, 00.85 seconds finishing almost a second ahead of Russia.

The United States were third.

It marked the first time Australia had won the 4x200m freestyle relay world title since 2003.

It was Australia's fifth gold of the meet and remarkably the fourth win out of five relays to date for the Dolphins at Gwangju.

"It was a very good end. That anchor leg's always tough. There's a lot of pressure on it but I think it's always a privilege to be able to anchor your team and just put the body on the line for the boys," Horton said.

More importantly for Horton it marked the first time the Australian stepped up to the podium in South Korea after staging a protest against controversial Sun at the meet's opening night.

Horton sparked an international furore when he refused to acknowledge Sun after the Chinese star relegated him to 400m freestyle silver on Sunday.

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Swimmers quickly threw their support behind Horton who was angry that Sun had been allowed to compete ahead of a Court of Arbitration for Sport hearing in September.

Sun - who served a doping ban in 2014 - faces a lifetime suspension if found guilty of charges that he smashed a vial of his blood with a hammer in a clash with testers at his home last year.

Coincidentally Sun was swimming the anchor leg for a China team that finished sixth in the 4x200m relay final.

Earlier, Cate Campbell was relegated to 100m freestyle silver by American Simone Manuel who defended her world title in an American record.

A day after equalling the world record, Matthew Wilson had to settle for 200m breaststroke silver after Russian Anton Chupkov won in a new world record of two minutes, 06.12 seconds.

It was 0.55 faster than the mark shared by Wilson and Japan's Ippei Watanabe.

In the women's 200m backstroke, Minna Atherton (fourth fastest) and Kaylee McKeown (sixth) both made the final after American teenager Regan Smith set a world record two minutes, 03.35 seconds, erasing compatriot Missy Franklin's mark at the 2012 Olympics.

In the men's 100m butterfly semi-finals, Matthew Temple scraped into the final as eighth fastest after American Caeleb Dressel topped the timesheets in a world record 49.50 seconds, 0.32 quicker than Michael Phelps' mark set in the 2009 supersuit era.

Brianna Throssell was sixth fastest for the 50m butterfly final.

Cameron McEvoy missed the 50m freestyle final.