Sun Yang of China celebrates his win after men's 200m freestyle final in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, August 8, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua]

RIO DE JANEIRO - China's Sun Yang clinched his third Olympic gold medal on Monday by winning the men's 200m freestyle at the Rio Olympics.

The 24-year-old finished in 1 minute 44.65 seconds, 0.55sec ahead of South Africa's Chad le Clos with the USA's Conor Dwyer 0.58sec further back.

It was China's first swimming gold medal of the Rio Games. Sun won silver in the same event at the London 2012 Games.

World record holder Paul Biedermann of Germany was sixth in the final, 1.19sec behind Sun.

After Sun makes sweet revenge in the freestyle discipline, Fu Yuanhui tied for bronze in the women's 100 backstroke final.

China's medal haul did not finish as Xu Jiayu won a stunning silver in the men's 100m backstroke minutes later.