BARCELONA, Spain, 27 July 2003 — Sprint czar Alexander Popov of Russia completed the sprint double at the world swimming championships for the second time as more records tumbled yesterday.

Popov won the 50m freestyle to add to the 100m gold he won earlier in the championship, as Ian Crocker of the United States joined the record trail when he smashed the 100m butterfly record for the third time in two days. Crocker, runner-up two years ago, clocked 50.98 to better the previous mark of 51.47 set by American teammate Michael Phelps here on Friday night.

Phelps took silver, himself under his own record in 51.10, with the bronze going to Andrii Serdinov of the Ukraine in 51.59.

The 18-year-old Phelps had set the record in Friday’s semifinals just minutes after Serdinov had clocked 51.76 to break the previous mark of 51.81 by Michael Klim of Australia in Canberra in December 1999.

Popov, world record holder over 50m, timed a championship record of 21.92 to come in ahead of Britain’s Mark Foster in 22.20 with the bronze going to Pieter van den Hoogenband of the Netherlands in 22.29. Jenny Thompson of the United States, meanwhile, went down in the history books once again as she overtook Germany’s Michael Gross and Australian Ian Thorpe as the top all-time medal scorer at worlds with a record 14.

The 30-year-old Thompson took silver in the 50m butterfly behind Olympic and world champion Inge de Bruijn and then came out and took silver again in the 4x100m medley relay for the United States.

The American, who in between races also qualified for the 50m freestyle finals, has already won two gold here in the 100m butterfly and 4x100m relay and a bronze in the 100m freestyle. The 29-year-old de Bruijn clocked a championship record of 25.84sec. China won the relay in a championship record time of 3:59.89 but there was drama in the race with Yafea Yhou, who swam the butterfly leg, collapsing from exhaustion.

She got up after three minutes and later collected her medal. Defending champions Australia took the bronze.

Germany’s Hannah Stockbauer successfully defended her 800m women’s freestyle title with her third gold of the tournament, as Katy Sexton gave Britain their first ever women’s individual world gold by winning the 200m backstroke. Stockbauer pipped Diana Munz at the line timing 8:23:66, with the American having to settle for her third consecutive silver in 8:24.19.