Phelps Breaks Fifth World Record
Phelps & Stockbauer Named Swimmers of the Meet
Barcelona - 12,250 spectators came to watch the final night of swimming at the 10th FINA World Championships and none left disappointed; Michael Phelps made certain of that. He broke his fifth world record of the competition breaking the total of 4 set by Mark Spitz at the '72 Olympics. But what we will all eagerly wait for is to see if Phelps can break Spitz's other famous record of 7 Olympic gold medals next summer in Athens.
The USA won the medal race with 28 (11-12-5) over AUS in second overall with 22 (6-10-5) total. 24 countries won one or more medals.
Phelps and Hanna Stockbauer of Germany were named the Male and Female Athletes of the Championships.
50 Back Final Men
Thomas Rupprath (GER) won his first world title in a world record time of 24.80. The top six men all swam best times, including Matt Welsh who picked up a silver in 25.01 and Gerhard Zandberg (RSA) who won bronze in 25.07. "I am extremely happy," said Rupprath. "I do not care about the time, I do not care about anything, I am just happy that I won."
50 Breast Final Women
Xuejuan Huo (CHN) won her third gold medal with her win of 30.67, while Brooke Hanson (AUS) had a strong swim to win silver in 31.13. Zoe Baker (GBR), the world record holder at 30.57 was well off her best, and only managed the bronze with a time of 31.37. Unlike the men's 50 back, all three medal winners were off their best times.
"I wanted to beat the world record," said Huo. "After the whistle I realized that my start was not terribly good. If I had had a good start I think I could have beaten the record, however I am satisfied because the important thing was to win gold."
1500 Free Final Men
Ask any swimmer who swam in the '90s what the most exciting event is at a major championships and they will all tell you-the 1500 free. Unfortunately, the battles between Kieren Perkins, Jörg Hoffman, Glen Housman, and Daniel Kowalski are long gone and only Grant Hackett (AUS) remains alone to dominate the event.
So for the third time in a row, Hackett won the world title in the 1500. His time of 14:43.14 was off his best, but still 18 seconds ahead of the rest of the field. The race for silver actually turned out to be exciting. Igor Chervynskiy (UKR) had a clear lead heading into the final 500, but Eric Vendt (USA) gradually moved up from last place to sprint for the silver in the last 25 metres. Unfortunately, Vendt waited too long to make his move touching in 15:01.28 to Chervynskiy's 15:01.04.
50 Free Final Women
Inge de Bruijn (NED) cleared out on the field to win gold in 24.47, just off her championship record from 2001. "You´re calling me the queen of the championships," said de Bruijn. "But I don´t know if I am. But the king is definitely Alexander Popov, despite the good results of Michael Phelps."
Two young Aussies, Alice Mills (17 years old) and Lisbeth Lenton (18 years old) who out touched Jenny Thompson (USA) for the silver and bronze. "I didn´t think I could do it," said Mills. "I came for the experience, to get ready for next year´s Olympics, but I didn´t think I would win a medal." Mills swam a best time of 25.07 for the silver while Lenton swam a 25.08 for the bronze. "When I won the the 200 IM medal I was really shocked," said Lenton. "But this time I knew I could do it and I wanted it."
Thompson touched in 25.10 to finish the meet with a gold, silver, bronze, and fourth place finish. "I couldn't be happier with my performances here this week," said Thompson who spends her days in medical school. "I never expected this kind of success and although I would have liked to get a medal in my final event I think it is like a blessing in disguise because it will leave me with a hunger that I can use in training for next year."
400 IM Final Men
Despite the throwing of pumpers and grins from ear to ear, Michael Phelps (USA) finally looked tired. After winning in a perfectly paced race, Phelps swaggered across the pool-deck looking as if he couldn't swim another lap. His final time of 4:09.09 was almost 2 seconds faster than his world record swim last summer. As he has done all week, Phelps swam a more evenly paced race, taking the fly out slightly slower than last year and then progressively chopping time off the world record. His splits were:
| 2002 | 55.04 | 1:04.23 | 1:14.23 | 58.23 |
| 2003 | 55.44 | 1:03.78 | 1:12.76 | 58.11 |
As he did for Ian Crocker last night, Phelps's fast swimming carried along Laszlo Cseh (HUN) to a 4:10.79-only 6/100ths off Phelps's old world record. And in for the bronze for Tunisia's first medal, was Oussama Mellouli in 4:15.36.
400 IM Final Women
Yana Klochkova (UKR), untouched by anyone for several years, had to fight for gold against her new rival Eva Risztov (HUN). Risztov won four silver medals at last summer's Europeans. Today, she picked up her third world championship silver medal touching in 4:37.39 to Klochkova's 4:36.74. Beatrice Caslaru (ROM) won her first major international medal with a 4:41.86.
4x100 Medley Relay Men
Fittingly the night started and ended with new world records. The American team of Aaron Peirsol, Brendan Hansen, Ian Crocker, and Jason Lezak dropped 2 seconds off their world record set last year in a time of 3:31.54. "Surprised? No," said Peirsol. "We all knew we were capable of it. We wanted it, and it´s what we went for."
Russia was 2nd anchored by Alexander Popov in 3:34.72 and Japan was 3rd with a 3:36.12. "We are very, very happy! Thank you," said an elated Takashi Yamamoto of Japan. Kitajima added, "This is a good way to close the championships. Of course the individual times are important, and I am happy with my fastest split, we did this as a team and our combined strength is what matters."
It was Japan's first men's relay medal since the 1930s.
The top splits of the relay were:
Back: Aaron Peirsol (USA): 53.71(2nd fastest split of all time)
Breast: Kosuke Kitajima (JPN): 59.11 (fastest split of all time)
Fly: Ian Crocker (USA): 50.39 (fastest split of all time)
Free: Pieter vdHoogenband (NED): 46.20 (fastest split of all time)
| Swimming Medals as of July 27 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gold | Silver | Bronze | TOTAL | |
| USA | 11 | 12 | 5 | 28 |
| AUS | 6 | 10 | 6 | 22 |
| GER | 5 | 1 | 2 | 8 |
| RUS | 3 | 2 | 2 | 7 |
| CHN | 3 | 0 | 4 | 7 |
| GBR | 2 | 3 | 3 | 8 |
| UKR | 2 | 2 | 2 | 6 |
| NED | 2 | 2 | 1 | 5 |
| JPN | 2 | 1 | 3 | 6 |
| POL | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| FIN | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| ESP | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| BLR | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| HUN | 0 | 4 | 1 | 5 |
| SVK | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| DEN | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| CZE | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| CRO | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| ROM | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| FRA | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| TUN | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| RSA | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| SWE | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| ITA | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| SCG | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| MEX | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| CAN | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| BUL | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 40 | 42 | 38 | 120 | |
