BROOKE'S LOOK AT ROMA 09 DAY SEVEN
August 2: Marieke Guehrer completes an amazing comeback in Rome on day seven of the FINA World Swimming Championships. BROOKE HANSON reports...
Day seven finals witnessed 2008 Olympic champions Michael Phelps, Kirsty Coventry and Cesar Cielo all claim gold.
But the surprise gold came from lane six in the first final of the night, the women's 50m butterfly.
Australia's Marieke Guehrer shocked everyone, including herself, winning the gold medal in a new Australian and Commonwealth record time of 25.48.
Marieke had the swim of her life and couldn't believe it when she looked at the scoreboard. "I've won," she said.
She joins Jessicah Schipper and Brenton Rickard as Australia's only pool gold medallists of the championships so far.
After making her Olympic debut in the 100m backstroke at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Marieke lost passion for the sport and took a year out of the pool.
To start her comeback she moved from Brisbane to Melbourne and joined coach Ian Pope at the Vicentre swimming club.
Her rise to the top has been remarkable and her gold medal-winning performance today has made the long journey worth it.
Over the past 12 months Marieke built her racing confidence through out the 2008 World Cup series that set her up for a fantastic 2009.
During the five weeks of World Cup racing Marieke competed in Belo Horizonte (Brazil), Durban (RSA), Sydney, Singapore, Moscow (RUS), Stockholm (Sweden), Berlin (Germany), racing more than 50 times.
Her results got better with each meet and her series and career highlight came in Berlin where she broke her first world record in the 50m Butterfly.
Marieke became the first woman to break the 25 second barrier, clocking 24.99 and taking 0.32 off the mark set by Sweden's four-time Olympian Therese Alshammar.
Marieke arrived home as Australia's most successful World Cup campaigner and her hard work was rewarded with winning the overall female World Cup prize of $US100,000.
Add that to the 12 gold, 10 silver and 1 bronze medal, as well as a world record, and she came home with around $200,000 Aussie dollars for her efforts.
Marieke said the prizemoney would help her pay off her debuts and assist her for setting herself up for the future.
The extra cash has given her the peace of mind she needed to focus on improving her swimming and that has paid off in Rome.
Marieke believes her healthy balance between swimming, university studies, her swimwear business and social life is why she is keeps improving.
Her fun-loving, balanced approach to life has revitalised her swimming career and today rewarded her with a gold medal.
The 2009 World Swimming Championships is the 23-year-old's second major international meet of her career, five years since Athens.
Marieke has never given up on her dream and I believe the best is yet to come from Australia's newest world champion.