Ian Crocker avenged his Athens Olympic defeat in the 100m butterfly with a world-record-setting victory over fellow American Michael Phelps on Saturday at the 11th World Swimming Championships.
Crocker claimed his second straight 100m fly world title in 50,40 seconds, slicing 36-hundredths off his previous world mark of 50,76 he set in beating Phelps at the United States Olympic trials last year.
”When you are racing Michael Phelps, you kind of assume it takes a world record to win,” said Crocker, who posted the eighth world record of the championships.
But Phelps hardly offered his usual challenge, settling for silver in 51,65, half-a-second outside his own personal best.
”That was a horrible swim for me — 51,6 isn’t very good,” said Phelps, who was third at the turn and finished 1,25 seconds behind Crocker, with Ukrainian Andriy Serdinov third in 52,08.
Despite the fact that he had already won the 200m free and 200m medley titles in Montreal as well as two relay golds, Phelps — winner of a sensational six Olympic gold medals in Athens — indicated he wasn’t happy with his overall form.
”I don’t want to be in a position where I’m disappointed with a race,” he said. ”I want to be happy with the way I’m swimming, but I’m not doing best times and thus I’m not happy.”
South African Roland Schoeman, in contrast, continued to display blistering form as he posted the second-fastest 50m freestyle time to date to capture that crown.
Schoeman, who had set two world records en route to the 50m butterfly title, won in 21,69 seconds, second only to the world record of 21,69 of now-retired Russian great Alex Popov.
”I certainly didn’t see myself coming in at 21,6,” said Schoeman, who hadn’t felt well during the semifinals on Friday. ”I think being sick takes off some of the pressure. You don’t know what to expect, and that’s exactly what it was. Last night, I felt like I was dead.”
Croatian Duje Draganja was second in 21,89 and Poland’s Bartosz Kizierowski was third in 21,94.
Africa claimed another gold as Zimbabwe’s Kirsty Coventry completed a backstroke double with her victory in the women’s 200m.
Coventry, whose 200m back gold was one of a complete set of Olympic medals she earned in Athens, clocked 2:08,52 to add the title to the 100m crown she captured on Tuesday.
Two international newcomers made their marks, American Kate Ziegler winning an 800m freestyle in which Olympic champion Ai Shibata was relegated to third and Australian Danni Miatke winning the 50m butterfly.
Ziegler, who had already won the 1 500m free title in Montreal, won in a personal best time of 8:25,31 with Canadian Brittany Reimer thrilling the home crowd with a second-place finish in 8:27,59.
Shibata, who had hoped to become Japan’s first woman swimming world champion, was third in 8:27,86.
”I had kind of high hopes for myself, but to do as well as I have — it’s unexplainable how excited I am with the results I had here,” Ziegler said.
Miatke, swimming in her first long-course international meet, was equally thrilled to show she belonged among Australia’s powerful women swimmers.
The 17-year-old clocked 26,11 to grab the 50m fly gold ahead of world-record-holder Anna-Karin Kammerling and her fellow Swede Therese Alshammar.
Kammerling, who earned the last of her three European titles in the event in 2002, took the silver in 26,36, and Alshammar, the reigning European 50m free champion, was third in 26,39.
”I wanted it, and usually I get what I want,” said the teenager. ”It’s awesome to race against girls with this much experience, this calibre.”
And, she said, it was just as exciting to be part of an Aussie women’s team that have stacked up eight gold medals with one night left in the championships.
”It has been such an awesome week to be part of this team,” she said. ”I can’t explain in words what it’s like to be part of that — it’s mind-blowing, really.”
Australia’s women punctuated the night with a victory in the 4x100m medley relay, with Sophie Edington, Leisel Jones, Jess Schipper and Lisbeth Lenton clocking a championship record of 3:57,47.
The US were second in 3:59,92, while Germany took bronze in 4:02,51. — Sapa-AFP