RECORD SMASHING TIME AT ROMA09
Rome, July 28: World champion and world record holder - they are the titles that now accompany the name of Brenton Rickard, as DAVID MOASE reports ...
RICKARD STRIKES GOLD AMID SILVER LININGS
The big Queenslander emerged from the orgy of record smashing at the 13th FINA World Championships in Rome - five 
more were broken this morning - with a coveted gold medal after racing to victory in the 100m breaststroke final.
And while Rickard could bask in the glory of his 58.58 second swim, his team mates were unlucky not to add more gold to the Telstra Dolphins' tally.
Butterflyers Jessicah Schipper and Matt Targett both went within a touch of glory and won silver instead, as did Stephanie Rice who swam faster than ever before but fell to a staggering swim by American Ariana Kukors.
Apart from the strong performances of the Australians in the finals, other team members set themselves up for the chance to win medals tomorrow while one legend was sensationally eliminated in the semi-finals.
Rickard sent a message of intent in his heat swim yesterday when he went under 59 seconds for the first time and despite a slower time in the semi-final showed enough to indicate he was right in the medal mix.
And from the minute they hit the water in today's final he was well positioned to win.
The 25-year-old turned in fifth place but only 0.17 behind leader Igor Borysik of Ukraine and then strong work off the wall had the Australian looming on the shoulder of powerful South African Cameron van der Burgh and close to the lead.
Rickard took charge of the race 30 metres from the wall and then did enough to hold out fast-finishing Frenchman Hugues Duboscq in lane one.
He finished 0.06 seconds in front of Duboscq with a time 0.33 inside the previous world record of Japanese legend Kosuke Kitajima.
"I'm just so happy to finally get there," Rickard said. "It's been a work in progress; this is my fourth world championships.
"I just love racing and when I touched the wall today I knew I'd raced well.
"I knew I'd done a good job and being told I'd won was a mind-blowing experience."
Of the suits that have caused so much debate at these championships, Rickard said the Jaked01 he wore today was definitely the best he'd swum in, ‘but I think I was the best swimmer out there today and it wouldn't have made a difference what we wore'.
With one gold medal tucked into his super suit, there is optimism that the Olympic 200m silver medallist will be able to make it double gold in the longer event later this week.
WINNING TOUCH ELUDES BRAVE SCHIPPER
Athletes who go frustratingly close to victory are often tortured by thoughts of what they could have done to make up the 
difference between winning and losing.
Australia's ultra-consistent butterfly star Jessicah Schipper should have no such thoughts today.
Racing just minutes after Rickard's breaststroke triumph, the 23-year-old seemingly did everything possible to win the 100m butterfly final only to be touched out by fast-finishing Swedish teenager Sarah Sjostrom.
Schipper started well and looked in control in the first lap before taking the lead early in the dash back to the wall.
She maintained her technique well until within metres of the wall and touched in 56.23 seconds, a time comfortably under the world record set by Sjostrom in yesterday's semi-finals.
The only problem was that Sjostrom was 0.17 seconds faster.
Despite Schipper's great race execution and grim determination, the 15-year-old Swede drew level with about 10 metres remaining and made her touch on the wall count.
Sjostrom's winning 56.06 included a 29.12 second 50 metres that was far and away the quickest in the race and well ahead of Schipper's split of 29.76.
Her swim was more than a second faster than Libby Trickett's winning time at the World Championships in Melbourne two years ago.
MATT MISSES THE TARGET, BUT ONLY JUST
US-based Australian speedster Matt Targett produced his best performance by far for the national squad by going within 
centimetres of claiming gold in Rome today.
Swimming from lane two in the final of the 50m butterfly, Targett was superb and failed by only 0.06 to beat winner Milorad Cavic of Serbia to the wall.
His silver medal-winning time of 22.73 did, however, take a huge chunk off his own Australian record and put him ahead of world record holder Rafael Munoz in today's final.
In his first individual world championship final, 23-year-old Targett, who trains under fellow Aussie Brett Hawke at Auburn University, started brilliantly and at stages looked like his might even grab the gold.
For Cavic, the win by a slim touch was a pleasant change after he lost the Olympic 100m butterfly final by the smallest of margins to Michael Phelps last year.
RICE CRACKLES BUT KUKORS POPS HER BUBBLE
Following yesterday's semi-finals, Olympic champion Stephanie Rice knew what she needed to do to have a chance of 
winning the 200m individual medley in Rome.
With American Ariana Kukors setting new standards, Rice was well aware she would have to try to swim faster than ever before.
And that is exactly what she did although it wasn't enough to stop the progress of Kukors, who produced another unbelievable performance.
Rice finished in 2:07.03, equalling the world record Kukors set yesterday, but ahead of her the American had already stopped the clock in a stunning 2:06.15.
Proving how much the new swimsuits have changed the sport, Kukors' time is 2.50 seconds betters that Rice's Beijing gold medal swim.
The good news for Rice is that Kukors is not a starter for the 400 IM.
PEIRSOL MISSES FINAL AS PHELPS LOOSENS UP
World record holder, Olympic champion, swimming legend and all-round good guy Aaron Peirsol was sensationally eliminated in the semi-finals of the 100m backstroke today.
Australia's Ashley Delaney also missed the final, with he and Peirsol paying the penalty for the slow speed of their semi-
final.
After seeing Japan's Junya Koga and Ryosuke Irie and Germany's Helge Meeuw set good times in the first semi-final, the swimmers in semi no.2 knew they had to swim under 53 seconds to ensure their place in the final.
Spaniard Aschwin Wildeboer led home the second semi in 52.76 but Peirsol, whose world record is 51.94, could do no better than 53.22 to be ninth fastest in the semi-finals and Delaney was just behind in 53.24.
Peirsol's countryman Michael Phelps had a better time of it in the 200m freestyle semi-finals.
Phelps used his semi as merely a warm-up, looking untroubled as he won in 1:45.23. Australia's Patrick Murphy started well in the race but faded to finish sixth in 1:46.70 and miss the final.
Kenrick Monk did better for Australia in the second semi-final and was seventh fastest qualifier for the final in 1:45.77. His semi was won by 400m freestyle champion Paul Biedermann in the fastest qualifying time of 1:43.65.
SEEBOHM AND KATSOULIS EYEING MEDALS
Emily Seebohm and Sarah Katsoulis were comfortable qualifiers for tomorrow's finals and will have hopes of taking a medal although they will probably have to swim world records if they want to win gold.
Both finished second in their semi-finals and were beaten by swimmers who set world records.
Seebohm swam a personal best 59.15 and looked in good form despite collapsing after one of her swims on day one. Russian Anastasia Zueva swam 58.48 to set a new world record.
For Katsoulis, her 1:06.23 semi-final swim was a big personal best although she trailed home American Rebecca Soni, who looked supreme in swimming 1:04.84 and taking the world record from Australia's Leisel Jones.
Tarnee White swam 1:07.26 in her semi-final, which was the 11th fastest time.
In the women's 1500m heats, open water gold medallist Melissa Gorman made a successful switch to the pool to qualify for the final in eighth place in 16:16.83.