France's Agnel wins gold in 200-m freestyle

London: Yannick Agnel of France beat a stellar field to win the 200-meter freestyle at the London Olympics on Monday.

Having pulled France ahead of the United States in the last leg of the 4x100 freestyle relay a day earlier, Agnel led from start to finish and clocked 1 minute, 43.14 seconds.

Park Tae-hwan of South Korea and Sun Yang of China shared silver in 1:44.93.

World champion Ryan Lochte of the United States finished fourth and Paul Biedermann of Germany, who holds the world record, was fifth.

Defending champion Michael Phelps did not enter the event.