SUPER SCHIPPER DISHES OUT OLYMPIC REVENGE
Rome, July 31: If revenge is a dish best served cold, Jessicah Schipper will be dining well in Rome today. DAVID MOASE reports ...
It has been almost a year since her Olympic Games defeat in the 200m butterfly but a gold medal at the 13th FINA World Championships and a sensational world record will have her feeling well satisfied.
Schipper turned the tables on Chinese swimmer Liu Zige with a come-from-behind win in the startling time of 2:03.41.
It was Liu who beat Schipper to Olympic gold last year but she couldn't match a perfectly judged race by the Australian today.
While Liu set off at a fast pace, Schipper was happy to sit back and wait for her opportunity.
She moved closer to the lead on the third lap and then a great turn gave her the perfect launch pad to challenge the leader, who was under world record pace.
Schipper drew level at the 25 metre mark and then forged ahead to break Mary Descenza's one-day-old world record by 0.73 seconds.
Liu also broke 2:04.00 in finishing second ahead of Hungary's Katinka Hosszu. Australia's Samantha Hamill finished eighth in 2:06.11.
SPRENGER SPRINGS SURPRISE TO CLAIM WORLD RECORD
Australia's great breaststroke rivals Christian Sprenger and Brenton Rickard will both go into tomorrow's 200m final thinking
they can win gold but choosing a winner is almost impossible.
Rickard is in career-best form and has already claimed a gold medal in the 100m but Sprenger hit back yesterday by breaking the 200m world record with a 2:07.31 sizzler in the first semi-final.
His win was the second leg of a double triumph for his coach Stephan Widmer who minutes earlier had guided Jessicah Schipper to victory and a world record in the 200m butterfly final.
Sprenger and Rickard shared the spoils at the Australian trials in March, including a dead heat in the 100m, and today conducted their own duel which left their opponents in their wake.
They are probably now equal favourites for the final, with American cancer survivor Eric Shanteau and Hungarian Daniel Gyurta their biggest dangers.
The battle between the Aussies took place in lanes seven and eight in the first semi-final, an indication of how they struggled in the heats and almost failed to qualify.
How quickly fortunes can change.
Rickard, coming off his 100m gold and fourth in the 50m final, struggled to adapt to the longer race in the heats and 
squeaked into the semi-finals as the 16th, and last, qualifier. He was 0.32 seconds from missing out.
Sprenger fared a little better, getting through as the 12th fastest qualifier but giving little indication of what was to come.
Racing alongside each other but away from their main rivals, the Australians set about stealing the semi-final from under the others' noses.
They led together at the 50m turn and then Rickard, well under world record pace, opened up a significant advantage in the next 100m.
With 50m to go he was 0.83 ahead of Sprenger but as Rickard tired in the final 25 metres his countryman grew stronger and took the lead 15 metres from the finish before taking the world record - one of seven set today - from Olympic champion Kosuke Kitajima.
Sprenger's time was almost four seconds faster that anything he had swum before the World Championships.
As the first and third fastest qualifiers, Springer and Rickard will be able to race alongside each other again in the final, in lanes four and three respectively, while Shanteau (lane five) and Gyurta (lane six) will be happy to keep a closer eye on them.
LIBBY FASTEST INTO FINAL BUT STEFFEN LOOMS
Defending champion Libby Lenton stepped on the accelerator today to qualify fastest for tomorrow's 100m final but she
knows a bigger challenge lies ahead.
Wearing her Speedo LZR suit rather than one of the faster alternatives, Trickett was quick off the blocks and controlled today's first semi-final to finish in 52.84, the best time she has achieved in the LZR.
Touching the wall just 0.03 behind, however, was Olympic champion Britta Steffen, Trickett's biggest rival for the sprint crown.
In contrast to the Australian, Steffen had a slow start and 25 metres from the finish continued to lag well behind.
She changed gears and with her last dozen strokes showed the impressive speed that took her to a new world record in the 4x100m relay on the first day of the championships.
Trickett's team mate Marieke Guehrer also raced in the first semi-final but missed the final after finishing seventh in 54.21.
American Amanda Weir won the second semi in 53.02 and looked good in both of today's swims but the final is likely to be a match race between Trickett and Steffen; between the LZR and the Adidas Hydrofoil.
Steffen had the better of the rivalry in the freestyle relay, as she did in Beijing last year.
Trickett, on the other hand, has been super consistent all year and will be hoping she can find enough early speed to put the German under intense pressure.
ROME HAILS RULE OF THE NEW CESAR
Australia may not have had a swimmer in today's men's 100m final and Eamon Sullivan may have lost his world record but at least one Aussie was cheering loudly at the victory of Brazil's Cesar Cielo.
Former Telstra Dolphins swimmer Brett Hawke coaches Cielo at Auburn University in the United States and masterminded his star's assault on the world title and the world record.
The Brazilian emerged from the blue riband event with both the gold medal and the first legitimate swim under 47 seconds by stopping the clock at 46.91.
Filho hit the water at top seed and raced at the head of the field from the first stroke, turning in second place behind Frenchman Fred Bousquet, another Hawke-coached swimmer, and then moving to the lead.
Olympic champion Alain Bernard, the race favourite and fastest qualifier, had a poor start which cost him any chance of victory but battled his way back to take silver with Bousquet getting bronze.
BRIGHT FUTURE ON HORIZON FOR IMPROVING BRODIE
Leith Brodie continued his outstanding Rome form with another personal best and Commonwealth record despite placing fifth in the 200m individual medley final today.
It was the third PB for Brodie in the past two days as he emerged as a genuine international class swimmer and a bright hope for the future.
With veteran coach John Rodgers moving to Canada later this year, Brodie will join the squad of Brisbane coach Michael Bohl, which also includes double Olympic medley champion Stephanie Rice.
American Ryan Lochte benefited most from Michael Phelps' decision not to contest the 200m medley by taking gold and breaking Phelps' world record as well.
His time of 1:54.10 put him comfortably ahead of Hungarian Laszlo Cseh and countryman Eric Shanteau.
Lochte is in with a chance of winning a second gold medal tomorrow after qualifying fifth fastest for the 200m backstroke final.
He is a former world record holder in the event and the man who broke his record at the US trials, Aaron Peirsol, was fastest into the final in a comfortable championship record time of 1:54.06.
Japan's Ryosuke Irie, who starred at the Duel in the Pool in Canberra in May, looms as the biggest threat to Lochte and Peirsol, with the smooth stroker second fastest into the final in 1:54.14.
CHINESE WOMEN STRIKE GOLD IN ROME AGAIN
Fifteen years ago China's female swimmers dominated the World Championships in Rome under very dubious circumstances.
Suspicions of drug use were virtually confirmed when the Chinese won all but four events on the women's program.
Returning to the Italian capital in 2009, the Chinese swimming team is nowhere near as dominant but its women enjoyed a winning day today.
After Olympic champion Liu Zige was beaten into second place behind Jessicah Schipper in the 200m butterfly, her team mate Zhao Jing caused an upset to win the 50m backstroke final.
Swimming in lane two, Zhao led from the start to defeat Germany's Daniela Samulski and another Chinese, Gao Chang, and set a new world record of 27.06 into the bargain.
Australia's Sophie Edington and Emily Seebohm finished sixth and seventh respectively and at no stage looked like challenging for a medal.
Chinese success continued in the 4x200m relay, which they dominated despite an early challenge from the American team.
Their win in 7:42.08 was more than two seconds ahead of the world record set by Australia at the Beijing Olympics. Australia, missing national 200m champion Meagan Nay, placed fifth.