Simone Barlaam clinched Italy's first medal of day in Manchester ©Getty Images

A quartet of gold medals on the third day of the Para Swimming World Championships saw Italy extend their lead over China in the standings.

The Italians have claimed 13 titles so far at the Manchester Aquatics Centre to China's 10, with the latter managing three wins today.

Tokyo 2020 Paralympics champion Simone Barlaam clinched Italy's first victory after a slow start.

The 23-year-old set a new Championships record in the men's 100 metres butterfly S9 final with a time of 58.25sec, beating his own mark from last year's event by 0.04.

He finished with a substantial 1.49 margin over Australian Timothy Hodge while German Malte Braunschweig took bronze in 1min 00.66sec.

Just two races later, Barlaam's compatriot Stefano Raimondi triumphed in the men's 400m freestyle.

Raimondi, also a Tokyo 2020 gold medallist, clocked in after 4:06.96 to beat Dutchman Bas Takken by 2.90 before Poland's Alan Ogorzalek rounded out the top three in 4:14.50.

World record holder Carlotta Gilli produced a blistering swim in 59.26 to clinch her 12th career gold at the Championships.

She beat Australian Katja Dedekind and Olivia Chambers of the United States by respective margins of 0.28 and 0.86 in the women's 100m butterfly S8 final.

The last Italian triumph of the day came courtesy of Albeto Amodeo with a 1:02.94 finish in the men's 100m butterfly S8 final.

He was followed by Wu Hongliang of China's 1:03.23 and American Noah Jaffe who was 1.83 off the pace.

A Chinese four of Yuan Weiyi, Cheng Jiao, Jiang Yuyan, and Guo Jincheng capped off the day's action with a world record in the mixed 4x50m relay.

They destroyed the United States' existing benchmark of 2:32.49 by finishing in 2:27.45 and were followed by Ukraine and Spain.