SPEED KINGS MAKE A BIG SPLASH
Rome, July 30: It wasn't that long ago that a low 49 second swim could win you a place in a world championship 100m final but today in Rome it was 47 seconds or oblivion, reports DAVID MOASE.
Led by powerhouse Frenchman Alain Bernard with a time of 47.27, the fastest swimmers on the planet made the water boil with their red-hot form.
So fast were the semi-finals that Bernard's countryman Fred Bousquet squeaked into the final in eighth place with a time of 47.98 - a time that would have easily won him any previous world championship final.
With world record holder Eamon Sullivan at home recovering from illness, Australia's hopes rested with Matt Targett who was aiming for a time around his 47.88 personal best to make it through to the final but he could only manage 48.16, 11th fastest.
Targett swam in what was a sizzling first heat that was won by Bernard and also included Cesar Cielo (Brazil, 47.48), veteran Stefan Nystrand (Sweden, 47.53), and another Brazilian, Nicolas Oliveira (47.78).
Fastest in the second semi-final was Canada's Brent Hayden with 47.88, followed by American David Walters who swam 47.92, significantly slower than his 47.59 heat time.
Amid the Roman orgy of world record breaking, Sullivan's 47.05 100m record looks to be in serious danger in tomorrow's final.
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ZHANG HACKS UP GRANT'S RECORD
For all the success China's women have achieved in the pool, their men had never won a world championship title. 
Zhang Lin changed that in amazing fashion today, and in doing so he obliterated one of Australian Grant Hackett's remaining world records.
In one of the most dramatic examples of the effects of the super suits, Zhang won the 800m freestyle in 7:31.12, six and a half seconds inside Hackett's record set in 2005.
In doing so he relegated Beijing 1500m champion Oussama Mellouli to second place with a blistering finish over the final 100 metres.
Zhang took the lead from Mellouli after 200 metres and opened up a comfortable break before the Tunisian fought back to be almost level after 700 metres.
The Chinese star then unleashed a withering finish to win by more than three seconds, with Canadian Ryan Cochrane taking bronze.
SCHIPPER FACES TOUGH TEST TO RETAIN TITLE
Defending champion Jessicah Schipper will need to produce the fastest swim of her life to retain her 200m butterfly title 
tomorrow.
The 23-year-old has already produced a personal best - 2:04.87 - to win her semi-final but will be well aware that such a time is unlikely to reap a gold medal in the final.
That was shown most clearly in today's heats when American Mary Descenza set a new world record with a sizzling 2:04.14.
Schipper, with team mate Samantha Hamill alongside her, won her heat after China's Jiao Liuyang set a fast early pace but faded in the final 50 metres.
The time was, however, significantly slower than in the second semi-final where Hungary's Katinka Hosszu (2:04.27) and Descenza (2:04.33) were well clear of the field.
Olympic champion Liu Zige qualified sixth fastest and will also be a danger in the final.
Hamill, 18, qualified seventh fastest for her first major international final, recording a personal best time of 2:05.99.
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SUIT DRAMA CAN'T STOP PHELPS THIS TIME
One day after his dramatic 200m freestyle defeat, superstar Michael Phelps regained his gold medal-winning mojo in the 
event he has made his own, the 200m butterfly.
He bounced back from his defeat to German Paul Biedermann in the best possible fashion, setting a new world record of 1:51.51.
The American was under world record schedule almost from the start as he surged to an early lead and dominated his rivals all the way.
He was one second under world record pace at the 100m turn and eventually finished 0.52 seconds ahead of the time he set in Beijing last year. It was the eighth time Phelps has broken the 200m butterfly record.
Behind him was a thrilling race within a race between Poland's Pawel Korzeniowski and Japan's Takeshi Matsuda, which the Pole won to take silver, 1.72 seconds behind Phelps.
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RICKARD READY FOR 200M ASSAULT
Brenton Rickard's impressive world championship campaign continued today with a fourth placing in the 50m breaststroke
final.
The 100m champion was short of the blistering early pace needed to win the one-lap dash but looked better with every stroke and in the end only narrowly missed the bronze medal.
That form confirms him as a favourite for what is his strongest event, the 200m breaststroke, which begins tomorrow.
South African Cameron van der Burgh won gold in the 50m and set a new world record of 26.67, edging out Felipe Franca Silva of Brazil and Mark Gangloff of the United States.
UNHERALDED LEITH SWIMS INTO MEDAL RECKONING
Brisbane's Leith Brodie has been on Australian swim teams since 2004 but had never before shown the form that has him swimming for a medal in tomorrow's 200m individual medley final.
Brodie carved seconds off his personal best in two great swims today to go into the final as the third fastest qualifier.
He served notice of his hot form with a two-second personal best in the heats and then improved by close to another second in recording 1:56.75 in the semi-final.
The John Rodgers-trained 23-year-old followed home Hungarian Laszlo Cseh and American Ryan Lochte by more than a second in the semi-final and they will be the pair to beat in the final.
While it would take another huge improvement for Brodie to defeat that pair, he now looms as a strong chance to claim bronze, an outcome few would have predicted before today.
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FEDERICA MAKES IT A GOLDEN DAY FOR ITALY
The unrivalled queen of the Foro Italico pool, Federica Pellegrini, had the home crown in ecstasy again today as she crushed her rivals on the way to being the first woman to swim under 1:53 for the 200m freestyle.
Another world record seemed inevitable after the 400m gold medallist looked untroubled in setting the world's best time in her semi-final yesterday but the extent of her victory was still a surprise.
She stopped the clock at 1:52.98, almost two seconds ahead of her nearest rivals, American duo Allison Schmitt and Dana Vollmer.
Even Pellegrini seemed to be shaking her head in disbelief as she looked up at the scoreboard to see her time.