FOUR BRONZED AUSSIES
ROME, Aug 2: Australia has lost its status as the second best swimming nation in the world, falling to fourth on the medal table after winning four bronze medals on the final day of the FINA world championships.TOOD BALYM AAP reports...
Stephanie Rice (400m individual medley), Cate Campbell (50m freestyle), Sarah Katsoulis (50m breaststroke) and the men's 4x100m medley relay team all collected bronze early this morning.
However the string of third places was not enough to prevent the Dolphins slipping behind Germany and China on the medal table.
USA, as expected, won the count with 10 gold, six silver and six bronze medals.
Australia finished with three gold, four silver and eight bronze medals - behind Germany (4-4-2) and China (4-2-4).
Rice overcame a swimsuit malfunction prior to her race to finish third in four minutes 32.29 seconds, behind Hungary's Katinka Hosszu (4:30.31) and Zimbabwe's Kirsty Coventry (4:32.12).
Triple Olympic champion Rice said she put her finger through her suit prior to marshalling and had to rush her preparation for the event.
"I would have liked to have gone more around my Beijing time," said Rice, whose world record was not beaten in the final.
"Although I'm disappointed with third I'm happy no one broke the world record. That is one thing I can take away form that.
"I did have a bit of a malfunction with my suit getting it on ... I didn't go through the usual routine I would have wanted to which I think more than anything kind of threw me mentally.
"I don't want to use it as an excuse but I think it was more a mental shake up."
Cate Campbell dead-heated for the bronze medal in the 50m freestyle with Marleen Veldhuis of the Netherlands in 23.99s.
Germany's Britta Steffen claimed the 50-100m double, as she did at the 2008 Olympics, winning in a new world time of 23.73s ahead of Sweden's Therese Alshammar (23.88s).
Australia's defending world champion Libby Trickett had to settle for sixth in 24.19s.
It is Campbell's second bronze medal in the 50m free in as many international meets after placing third at the Beijing Olympics last year.
"I'm making a habit of this but a considerably faster time which makes me happy," said Campbell.
"It's great to see I'm moving forward.
"All credit goes to Britta, what an amazing athlete. To win the 50 and then the 100.
"I admire her so much as an athlete and even more as a person."
Sarah Katsoulis collected the bronze medal in the 50m breaststroke final in 30.16s, less than a tenth of a second behind Russian gold medallist Yuliya Efimova (30.09s) who won in world record time.
USA's Rebecca Soni claimed the silver in 30.11s, while retiring Australian Tarnee White (30.91s) was eighth.
For Katsoulis the bronze medal caps a turbulent career in which she made her Dolphins team debut at the 2002 Commonwealth Games, but has twice missed the Olympic team and is competing at her first world titles since 2005.
"In the back of my mind I was hoping (to win a medal). I knew it would be tough," she said.
"I have had a lot of ups and downs over the past couple of years, a couple of surgeries and my appendix out ... it makes it all worthwhile."
"It has all paid off."
The men's medley relay quartet of Ashley Delaney, Brenton Rickard, Andrew Lauterstein and Matt Targett touched third in 3:28.64, behind USA (3:27.28) and Germany (3:28.58).
Meanwhile retired Australian champion Grant Hackett's 1500m freestyle world record remained unbeaten as Tunisian Olympic champion Oussama Mellouli won the gold medal in 14:37.28, just 2.72s off Hackett's 2001 mark.