Swimming: Phelps' third gold takes titles to six

MONTREAL - Michael Phelps captured his third gold medal at the world championships yesterday to join Ian Thorpe and Grant Hackett as the only swimmers to win six individual world titles.

The American added another page to his glowing resume when he fought off a sustained challenge from Hungarian Laszlo Cseh to retain the 200m individual medley title he won in Barcelona two years ago in 1m 56.68s.

Just an hour earlier he bombed out in the 100m freestyle final won by Italian Filippo Magnini.

Magnini pulled off a major upset to take the gold in a time of 48.12s, making him the second fastest man in history behind world record holder Pieter van den Hoogenband.

Just a few minutes later, Otylia Jedrzejczak of Poland broke her world record to win the women's 200m butterfly final after a thrilling duel with Australia's Jessicah Schipper that saw both women go under the old mark.

Australia struck one gold when Giaan Rooney won the women's 50m backstroke final but the US kept their lead on the medals table through Phelps and the women's 4x200m freestyle relay team.

Phelps had needed to win yesterday's blue-riband sprint to keep alive his dream of breaking Thorpe's record of six gold medals at a single championship, but could manage only seventh place as Magnini pinched the title with a perfectly-timed swim.

Magnini stormed home on the last lap after being fourth at the turn to flash past the South African duo of Roland Schoeman and Ryk Neethling. Schoeman had led at the halfway mark almost three-quarters of a second under van den Hoogenband's world record pace but weakened to finish second in 48.28s and Neethling also faded to take third in 48.34s.

Jedrzejczak saved her best for last in her epic battle with Schipper, sneaking past the Australian in the last two strokes to win the gold in 2m 05.61s, 0.17s under the previous world record, which the Olympic champion set at the 2002 European championships in Berlin.

Schipper, who won the 100m butterfly title earlier this week, finished in 2m 05.65s while Japan's Yuko Nakanishi was a distant third in 2m 09.40s.

Rooney won the backstroke sprint in 28.63s to add to the 200m freestyle gold she won at the 2001 world championships in Fukuoka, Japan.

- REUTERS