Swimming: Crocker's world record ends Phelps' golden run

BARCELONA - Michael Phelps' golden run came to an astonishing end when he was beaten in the 100m butterfly final and lost a world record to fellow American Ian Crocker at the world swimming championships in Barcelona yesterday.

The upset, interrupting a sequence of four world records and two titles, came on a dramatic day in which Alexander Popov, double world champion nine years ago, repeated the feat by adding the 50m freestyle gold to the 100m crown.

Thirty-year-old American Jenny Thompson took her aggregate world championship medal haul to a record 14 with silvers in the 50m butterfly and 4x100m medley relay, surpassing Germany's Michael Gross and Australia's Ian Thorpe.

Phelps, seemingly invincible over the last few days, proved human when Crocker shattered his 18-year-old team mate's one-day-old world record with a time of 50.98 seconds, more than a second faster than his own previous best.

Phelps touched in 51.10, also way inside the 51.47 world mark he set in the semi-finals, but it was only good enough for silver.

Andriy Serdinov of Ukraine, who briefly held the world record in Saturday's semifinals, took the bronze in 51.59.

Crocker raised his arms, dumbfounded by his achievement, when he saw the result.

"I've been wanting to go 51 for a long time and I guess I just skipped that one and went right to the 50, and I'll take that," Crocker, silver medallist in the 50m butterfly, said after an extraordinary 24 hours in which the world record has gone from Australian Michael Klim's 1999 mark of 51.81, via Serdinov (51.76) and Phelps (51.47) down to 50.98.

"I don't know what to think right now. I feel like someone's going to wake me up and it's going to be time to swim today," he said.

Popov, 31, swung through the 50m freestyle in 21.92, breaking his own championship record to take his Barcelona tally to three golds - 50m and 100m freestyle and 4x100m freestyle relay.

Britain's Mark Foster, world short-course champion in 1993 and now aged 33, grabbed the silver from the outside lane in 22.20.

Pieter van den Hoogenband, silver medallist in 2001 but not fully fit after food poisoning before the championships, took the bronze in 22.29, just 0.01 seconds ahead of fellow Dutchman Johan Kenkhuis.

Germany's Hannah Stockbauer completed a unique distance freestyle treble when she retained her 800m title, prevailing in a close duel with American Diana Munz.

Stockbauer, who also won the 400m and retained her 1500m crown, clocked a championship record 8min 23.66sec. Munz, silver medallist in 1998 and 2001, had to settle for her third successive silver, clocking 8min 24.19sec. Commonwealth champion Rebecca Cooke of Britain took the bronze.

Dutch triple Olympic gold medallist Inge de Bruijn retained her 50m butterfly title, finishing strongly to win in 25.84 and beating the championship record 25.90 she set two years ago.

Thompson, who regained the 100m butterfly title last Tuesday, took silver in 26.00 and Sweden's Anna-Karin Kammerling, who set a world record 25.57 12 months ago, took her second consecutive world 50m butterfly bronze in 26.06.

China won the medley relay in 3m 59.89s, the second-fastest time ever. Thompson pulled the US up from fourth to second on the butterfly leg, and the Americans took silver in 4min 00.83sec with Australia third.

Britain's Katy Sexton, a silver medal already in her possession from the 100m, stepped up to gold when she won the 200m backstroke.

Sexton put in a tremendous finish to overhaul American Margaret Hoelzer, who had taken the lead from European champion Stanislava Komarova of Russia on the last length. The 1998 Commonwealth champion won in 2min 08.74sec, Hoelzer took the silver in 2min 09.24sec and 17-year-old Komarova the bronze.

"I don't really think it will sink in until tomorrow," Sexton said.

"I probably won't have much sleep tonight just thinking about it, pondering on the fact that I'm world champion."

* Backstroker Hannah McLean became the first New Zealander to swim into the world's top-10 at the championships.

The North Shore swimmer, who made the semifinals of the 200m earlier in the day, produced a superb effort in the evening semifinals to finish 10th fastest.

Her personal best time of 2min 13.37 seconds was less than 1sec outside a place in the final.

McLean has been the standout performer for the New Zealanders in Barcelona, finishing 12th fastest in the semifinals of the 100m backstroke, and now going even better in the 200m, which has not been her favoured distance.

- NZPA