Swimming: Phelps centre of attention in Montreal

SYDNEY - All eyes will again be on the amazing Michael Phelps when the 11th world swimming championships get underway in Montreal this month.

The American stole the limelight at last year's Athens Olympics when he scooped up an unprecedented eight medals, including six golds, to confirm his reputation as the world's greatest contemporary swimmer.

He was arrested for drink-driving in November and sentenced to 18 months' probation but his attempt to win another eight medals in Montreal will thrust him back in the spotlight for all the right reasons.

No swimmer has ever won eight medals at a single world championship but few would bet against Phelps becoming the first, particularly in the absence of his great rival Ian Thorpe and the flying Dutchman Pieter van den Hoogenband.

Thorpe, who won a record six golds at the 2001 world championships in Japan, is taking a year off to recharge his batteries as part of his long-term preparations for the 2008 Beijing Olympics while van den Hoogenband is recovering from a hernia operation.

They are among a host of top swimmers who have decided to skip this year's championships, either through injury, retirement or just lack of interest in an event being held less than 12 months after Athens.

He will still contest the 100m butterfly and the 200m individual medley, which he won at the last world titles in Barcelona and the Olympics, but is also entered in the 100m, 200m and 400m freestyle, as well as the three relays.

Australia's Grant Hackett, the undisputed king of long-distance swimming, is also on a mission which, if successful, could trump anything Phelps achieves.

Hackett is unbeaten over 1500m since 1996 and is aiming to become the first swimmer, male or female, to win the same event at four world championships after his wins at Perth (1998), Fukuoka (2001) and Barcelona (2003).

The 25-year-old Australian is also on course to become the most successful swimmer in the history of the championships and that has put him on a collision course with Phelps.

Hackett has already won 12 medals and is just one short of the record of 13 jointly held by Thorpe, Thompson and Michael Gross but seems certain to go past them all.

He has entered five events in Montreal -- the 200m, 400m, 800m and 1,500m freestyle as well as the 4x200m relay, and is likely to win medals in all of them.

His clashes with Phelps in the 200m and 400m loom as the two biggest races of the meeting with Hackett favoured to win the 400m and Phelps tipped for the shorter event.

Montreal hosts a week of diving, water polo and synchronised swimming from Sunday before the swimming begins on July 24.

- REUTERS