Hosszú, who last month secured the women’s overall International Swimming Federation (FINA) Swimming World Cup title, continued her stunning form by breaking the world short course record in the heats for the women’s 400 metres.

The 26-year-old produced at time of 4min 19.46sec to shave 0.40 seconds  off the previous mark, set by Spain’s Mireia Belmonte at last year's Championships, and went close to improving on her effort again in the final.

Touching home in 4:19.75, the Hungarian star finished well clear of her rivals with Britain’s Hannah Miley finishing as the runner-up, ending 7.12 adrift.

“I said in the morning, if I miss a couple of turns, I might be off the world record – and that happened exactly during the freestyle leg,” Hosszú said.

“However, I’m not so sad as I the time is very close to my morning mark so it has a positive message after all that it was a good effort.”

France’s Lara Grangeon completed the podium positions after finishing in 4:27.31.

Hungarian success continued in the next final as Bernek held off the challenge of Germany’s Paul Biedermann to win gold in the men’s 400m freestyle event in 3:35.46.

Biedermann ended 0.50 behind the winner to take silver, while Italy’s Gabriele Detti claimed the final podium spot in 3:37.22.

The opening day of competition continued to see fast times as Poland's Radoslaw Kawecki earned gold in the men’s 200m backstroke, setting a Championship record of 1:48.33.

Home favourite Yakov Yan Toumarkin and Italy’s Simone Sabbioni completed the podium, clocking times of 1:49.84 and 1:50.75 respectively.

World long course men’s 50m breaststroke champion Adam Peaty was forced to settle for silver after the Briton finishing 0.01sec behind Damir Dugonjic in the final, the Slovenian swimmer triumphing in 26.20sec.

Russia’s Oleg Kostin clinched bronze in 26.35.

The corresponding women’s event saw Finland’s Jenna Laukkanen claim gold in 29.71, with Belgium’s Fanny Lecluyse and Russia’s Natalia Ivaneeva finishing the podium after recording 29.84 and 29.99 respectively.

Russia’s 4x50m freestyle relay team - consisting of Evgeny Sedov, Andrey Arbuzov, Aleksandr Kliukin and Nikita Konovalov – earned the final gold of the first day of competition, finishing in 1:23.49.

Having finished in 1:24.44 the Italian team won silver, while Belgium secured bronze, touching home in 1:25.01.

The Championships are due to continue until Sunday (December 6).

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