LONDON, 11 July 2003 — Michael Phelps leads American ambitions to wrest supremacy from Ian Thorpe’s Australia in the forthcoming world swimming championships in Barcelona which start on Sunday.
Thorpe won a record six gold medals at the last world championships in Fukuoka, Japan, in 2001 as Australia claimed 13 titles in the pool against nine for the United States following a 14-7 advantage to the Americans at the 1998 edition in Perth.
The US scored an overwhelming 196-74 points victory over their rivals in the ‘Duel in the Pool’ in Indianapolis in April but the Australians were depleted and Thorpe pulled out because of a viral illness.
The Americans, nonetheless, will face the real showdown in Barcelona’s Palau Sant Jordi pool with every confidence, buoyed by the exploits of Phelps, who claimed his second world record of the year on June 29, a day before his 18th birthday.
Phelps, who improved on his own 400 meters individual medley world mark in April, broke the oldest men’s long-course world record in the book when he lowered the 200m medley standard set by Finland’s Jani Sievinen in 1994.
The championships start on Sunday with open-water swimming, diving, water polo and synchronised swimming but fans must wait until the following Sunday for the major action in the pool to begin, stretching over eight days.
Phelps, defending world champion and world record holder in the 200m butterfly, fastest man this year in the 100m butterfly as well as world record holder in the 200m and 400m individual medley, will have every opportunity to shine.
