ROME: Saturday saw four world records being broken in the Foro Italica at the World Swimming Championships, with one of them going to American superstar Michael Phelps, who won a showdown with Serbian challenger Milorad Cavic.
The other world records on the day went to Zimbabwean Kirsty Coventry, who won the women’s 200m backstroke, the Chinese women’s 4x100 medley relay team who took gold and Briton Liam Tancock who broke the men’s 50m backstroke world record in the semifinals.
Phelps said after winning the men’s 100m butterfly that the race had been like a classic showdown between him and Cavic, which he managed to win in a time of 49.82 seconds, beating Cavic’s old record of 50.01.
American-born Cavic had said before the race that he was prepared to buy Phelps an all-polyurethane bodysuit, if his (Phelps’) suit was not fast enough.
Cavic finished .13 seconds behind Phelps, who cheered wildly at the finish and pointed at his suit. He then ignored Cavic as he swam over to third-placed Rafael Munoz and congratulated him.
“I set it up perfectly. That is exactly what I wanted to do. I knew what I had to,” Phelps said.
Earlier in the session, Coventry, who was hoping to win at least three medals at this competition, finally picked up her first when she took the women’s 200m backstroke in a world record time of 2:04.81.
She beat Russian Anastasia Zueva by .13 seconds. The bronze medal went to American Elizabeth Beisel in a time of 2:06.39.
Coventry, who managed to better her own best mark by .43 seconds, said that she had wanted to prove a point with the victory.
The swimmer, who unlike most other medal winners did not swim in an all-polyurethane suit, wore the same suit in which she won in Beijing.
“This was really important to me, I wanted to win in my old suit, I wanted to show that was possible and I am really glad that I managed to do that,” she said.
The third world record of the evening fell in the semi-finals of the men’s 50m backstroke, where Tancock managed a 24.08, beating the old best mark held by Randall Ball by .25 seconds.
Japan’s Junya Koga was also under the old best mark with a time of 24.29, while France’s Camille Lacourt had the third-fastest time.
Tancock said that he was happy to be a part of such a strong team.
“I managed to swim so well because we have a great team and I am proud to be a part of this team.” There was some disappointment for local fans as Italian 1,500m winner Alessi Filippi was beaten in the women’s 800m, winning bronze in 8:17.21.
Denmark’s Lotte Friis took the gold in a time of 8:15.92, while Briton Joanne Jackson won the silver, .74 seconds behind.
The final gold medal of the evening went to the Chinese team of Zhao Jing, Chen Huijia, Jiao Liuyang and Li Zhesi, who took gold in the women’s 4x100m medley relay in world record time of 3:52.19, beating the old record held by Australia of 3:52.69.
The Australian team took the silver medal in 3:52.58, while Germany won bronze in 3:55.79.
Earlier, Brazilian Cesar Cielo Filho showed why he is considered the best sprinter in the world when he added the gold in the 50m freestyle to the 100m gold that he won earlier in the competition.
Cielo Filho swam a championship record to beat France’s Frederick Bousquet (21.21) and Amaury Leveaux (21.25) into second and third place.
The Brazilian, who again had tears in his eyes as he received his gold medal, said that he was surprised at his victory. “I actually expected to be a little bit faster. I can’t really explain why I was the fastest in this race. I suppose everybody was a little bit tired after the 100m.” In the women’s 50m butterfly, Australian Marieke Guehrer was a surprise winner in a time of 25.48, beating Zhou Yafei by nine hundredth of a second.
Third place went to Norwegian Ingvild Snildal, who was a further hundredth behind.
Guehrer was totally shocked when she got out of the water. “Are you sure that I won, it must be a mistake. They must have made a mistake,” she asked an Australian swimming official.
In the semifinals of the women’s 50m breaststroke Australian Sarah Katsoulis led the field into the final with a time of 30.33, with the second-fastest time belonging to Moniek Nijhuis from the Netherlands, who was just five hundredth of a second slower.
Yuliya Efimova was third-fastest.
Cate Campbell topped the rankings in the women’s 50m freestyle ahead of Marleen Veldhuis. The Briton Campbell swam 24.08, .12 seconds faster than the Dutch woman.
German 100m gold medalist and world record holder Britta Steffen had the third-fastest time, while 42-year-old Dara Torres also made the final as eighth-fastest.
