Swimming: Hackett bursts Phelps' bubble

Australian Grant Hackett, who became the first swimmer to win gold medals at four world championships, powers away in the men's 400m freestyle finals in Montreal yesterday. Picture / Reuters

MONTREAL - Grant Hackett led an Australian golden double as the bubble burst for Michael Phelps on a dramatic opening day at the world swimming championships yesterday.

Hackett cruised to victory in the 400m freestyle to become the first swimmer to win gold medals at four world championships, as well as drawing first blood in his personal duel with Phelps.

The American did strike gold in the men's 4x100m freestyle relay but his failure to qualify for the 400m final torpedoed his ambition of winning eight gold medals at a single championship, following his six victories in Athens last year.

Australia won a second title yesterday with victory in the women's 4x100m freestyle final while French teenager Laure Manaudou won the women's 400m freestyle to add the world title to the Olympic crown she captured in Athens.

South African sprinter Roland Schoeman set a world record in the semifinals of the men's 50m butterfly, stopping the clock at 23.01s to wipe 0.29s off the previous record by American Ian Crocker in Austin last year.

Phelps had been expected to provide Hackett with stiffer opposition in the 400m after Ian Thorpe decided to skip the championships, but was left watching the final from the stands after labouring home in 18th place in the heats.

With no one able to mount a serious challenge to Hackett in what had been billed as the highlight of the meet, the Gold Coast law student coasted to his first major international title over the distance after finishing runner-up to Thorpe at each of the previous three world championships and last year's Olympics.

He led from start to finish, opening up a two-body length on the field by the halfway stage and maintaining his advantage to win in 3m 42.91s.

Russia's Yuri Prilukov was second in 3m 44.44s and Oussama Mellouli of Tunisia finished third in 3m 46.08s.

"Obviously it was a shame that Michael wasn't in the race but 3:42 is still a great time," Hackett said.

His victory provided Australia with the perfect start to the eight-day event and they finished the opening night of finals with another rousing victory in the women's sprint relay.

The quartet of Jodie Henry, Alice Mills, Shayne Reese and Libby Lenton sped to gold in a combined time of 3:37.32 to add the world title to their Olympic success last year.

Germany finished second in 3:38.24 and the United States came third in 3:38.31 after Natalie Coughlin had given them the lead at the first changeover.

Manaudou also completed the Olympic-world double with a stirring victory in the women's 400m freestyle final.

The 16-year-old's hopes of winning the title had seemed remote when she scraped into the final in eighth spot and had to swim from the outside lane.

But she set off at a cracking rate, reaching the halfway mark under world record pace, then held on to win a tight finish in 4:06.44 from Japanese hope Ai Shibata (4:06.74) and British teenager Caitlin McLatchey (4:07.25.)

Phelps quickly recovered from the disappointment of his failure in the 400m to swim the lead-off leg in the relay and give America the edge at the first changeover with a split time of 49.17.

Neil Walker and Nate Dusing then combined to open up a huge lead over the field, allowing Jason Lezak to anchor the Americans home in 3:13.77.

Host nation Canada grabbed second in 3:16.44 and Australia secured third in 3:17.56.

"Obviously it's a better swim than this morning," Phelps said.

"I still don't know what happened, maybe I just wasn't ready, but I definitely stepped it up [in the relay]."

- REUTERS