Two world marks tumble at swimming championships
(China Daily)
Updated: 2005-07-27 06:33

"The extra thing I had tonight was definitely emotion," said Hansen, who held off Kitajima in the final 50m to win in a championships record of 59.37sec.

It was barely outside his own world record of 59.30, but all that mattered to Hansen was that it was 16-hundredths of a second faster than Kitajima.

"When you get beat in front of a crowd like I did last summer, and come out here in the same situation, in the same block, it was like giving me a second chance," Hansen said. "I didn't want to screw it up twice."

Hansen said he avoided being lured into swimming a race dictated by Kitajima, which he believes cost him in Athens.

"I felt like a horse in the Kentucky Derby," Hansen said. "I didn't even look either side of me."

In the other two finals on the second night of swimming competition, American Katie Hoff also expunged the memory of Olympic disappointment in Athens with a victory in the 200m individual medley.

Hoff won in a championships record of 2:10.41, ahead of Olympic backstroke gold medallist Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe (2:11.13) and Australian Lara Carroll (2:13.32).

Jess Schipper made sure Australia's women got their hands on some gold, winning the 100m butterfly in a championships record of 57.23sec. Compatriot Lisbeth Lenton was second in 57.37 and Poland's Otylia Jedrzejczak - who won 200m butterfly gold and 100m silver in Athens - was third in 58.57.

The night's world records stole the spotlight from American superstar Michael Phelps, who eased into the final of the 200m freestyle with the top semi-final time of 1:46.33.

Italian Emiliano Brenbilla was second-quickest in 1:47.37, followed by Australians Nicholas Sprenger and Grant Hackett.

Backstroke world record-holders Aaron Peirsol and Natalie Coughlin of the United States also cruised through their respective 100m semi-finals.

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