화난고양이

12th FINA World Chamionships 2007 - Melbourne (AUS)

GREAT KOREAN FIRST FOR PARK

Seventeen-year-old Park Tae Hwan brought South Korea their first-ever world swimming championship title in the men’s 400 metres freestyle, French Olympic champion Laure Manaudou raced away with the women’s 400 freestyle and Australia and the United States handsomely retained relay crowns on the first day of pool action in the Susie O’Neill pool on Sunday.

Park produced an explosive turn of speed down the final length in a riproaring finish which swept him past his rivals in the men’s 400 to claim the first pool gold of the world championships. Park, the Pan-Pacific champion and second-fastest man in the world in 2006, had not figured among the first three through the first seven lengths in the Susie O’Neill pool but he cut loose down the eighth and last to win by the best part of a second in three minutes 44.30 seconds.

Tunisia’s Oussama Mellouli, bronze medallist at the 2005 world championships in Montreal, moved up to silver in 3:45.12 and Australia’s defending champion Grant Hackett had to settle for bronze in 3:45.43.

American Peter Vanderkaay, fastest in the morning’s heats, led through the first 100 metres but Hackett, out in lane eight as the slowest qualifier after scraping into the final by a mere nine-hundredths of a second, edged ahead at the end of the third length. Mellouli had hit the front by the 300-metre mark, and was still clear at the final turn, with Russian European champion Yuri Prilukov second and Hackett third. But none of them could withstand the power of Park down the last length as the South Korean charged through from fourth to first to scoop the gold.

Hackett, four times winner of the 1500 freestyle and twice winner of the 800 freestyle, took his world championship medal tally in individual events to 14, with his haul in the 400 now running at one gold, three silvers and a bronze.

Manaudou retained her 400 metres freestyle title in compelling style, utterly dominating the final and breaking the championship record for the second time in one day. Manaudou was a body-length up after 100 metres and two body-lengths clear at 200 metres. The 20-year-old Frenchwoman, who had broken the oldest world championship record - the 1978 mark of Australia’s Tracey Wickham (4:06.28) - with a 4:05.29 clocking in the morning’s heats, swam inside her own world record schedule for 300 metres of the final. She could not quite sustain that pace in the last 100 but still returned the second-fastest time ever of 4:02.61, bettered only by the 4:02.13 world mark she set at the European championships in Budapest last August. Poland’s Otylia Jedrzejczak, the Olympic 400 freestyle silver medallist, bagged another silver with a powerful surge in the second half of the race, clocking 4:04.23. Japan’s Olympic 800 freestyle champion Ai Shibata, 400 freestyle silver medallist at the last worlds, took the bronze in 4:05.19 ahead of American Katie Hoff.

Jodie Henry anchored Australia to victory over the United States in an enthralling women’s 4x100 metres freestyle relay final. Libby Lenton gave world and Olympic champions Australia a flying start with a lead-off split of 53.42 - a 100 time bettered only in history by the 53.30 world record of Germany’s Britta Steffen. Melanie Schlanger kept the Australians in front and still inside world record schedule on the second leg but American Amanda Weir overhauled Shayne Reese on the third and handed over a lead of 0.62 seconds. Henry, the reigning individual world and Olympic 100 freestyle champion, proved equal to the challenge and pipped Kara Lynn Joyce by 0.20 seconds to give Australia victory in a championship record 3:35.48. The U.S. took silver in 3:35.68 and the Netherlands bronze in 3:36.81. Steffen brought Germany home with the fastest relay split ever of 52.65 but it left Germany only fourth, 0.13 seconds shy of bronze.

Michael Phelps picked up his first gold of the championships in his challenge for an unprecedented eight victories in eight days of swimming, putting the United States on target in the men’s 4x100 metres freestyle relay with a 48.42 lead-off leg, a personal best by 0.41 seconds. Neil Walker, Cullen Jones and Jason Lezak finished off the job for a championship record 3:12.72, with reigning individual world 100 freestyle champion Filippo Magnini bursting through on the anchor leg to bring the silver to Italy in 3:14.04 and France taking bronze in 3:14.68, just ahead of Olympic champions South Africa.

Defending champions led the way in three of the evening’s four semi-finals - Australia’s Jessicah Schipper in the women’s 100 metres butterfly (57.57), American Katie Hoff in the women’s 200 metres individual medley (2:11.75) and South Africa’s Roland Schoeman in the men’s 50 metres butterfly (23.18).

Japan’s Kosuke Kitajima, the 2003 champion, had the edge over title-holder Brendan Hansen in the men‘s 100 metres breaststroke, clocking 1:00.05 to the American’s 1:00.13 in the semi-finals after leading the way in the morning’s heats in 59.96.