WORLD CHAMPS TOP FIVE STAND OUTS
Controversy, excitement and records aplenty - Roma '09 had it all, except perhaps credibility thanks to the presence of the super swimsuits and the amazing times they enabled. DAVID MOASE picks out his five highlights from the past eight days.
- Men's 100m butterfly
This was personal. The fiery rivalry between Michael Phelps and Milorad Cavic had been lit by their agonisingly close finish in Beijing, was stoked by their choice of swimsuits and Cavic's comments, and then ignited in the supercharged heat of competition.
Phelps was smarting from his defeat to Paul Biedermann in the 200m freestyle final and believed the German's high-tech suit cost him a gold medal. Cavic was to wear a new-style suit but Phelps was remaining loyal to Speedo and its LZR Racer.
The race was almost a carbon copy of their Beijing clash - Cavic out fast and first to turn, Phelps catching up on the second lap. Both broke 50 seconds for the first time in history but Phelps proved the stronger, both in mind and body, to win by 0.13 seconds.
And didn't he celebrate.
- Women's 400m freestyle
This was the result the championships needed to have. A first day, home town victory for Italy's often controversial glamour girl Federica Pellegrini.
And she didn't disappoint her adoring fans with an all-the-way victory to record the first time under four minutes - 3:59.15. It was also the day Pellegrini atoned for her poor swim in this event in last year's Olympics and gained some revenge over Rebecca Adlington who beat her in Beijing.
- Women's 200 butterfly
An event dear to Australians thanks to the succession of champions we've had in the past 15 years - Susie O'Neill, Petria Thomas and Jessicah Schipper. Schipper had been beaten by the Chinese in Beijing amid the controversy of her coach helping her rivals.
With a new coach and a new attitude, Schipper was looking for the chance to turn the tables but knew she would need to find extra speed to do the job. The swimmer who personifies determination did exactly that, pacing her race beautifully. She let Liu Zige get away to a fast start and saved her energy for the final lap where she swam Liu down and hit the wall in a dazzling 2:03.41. It was the perfect race.
- Men's 200m breaststroke
The semi-final of this event came only minutes after Schipper's gold medal swim. Australia's Christian Sprenger and Brenton Rickard had both narrowly made it through the heats and were side by side in lanes seven and eight, away from their rivals.
The pair turned it into a match race, with first Sprenger leading and then Rickard, the 100m champion, taking charge. In the final lap however, Rickard's effort started to wane and Sprenger, inspired by training partner Schipper, raced back to the lead and a most unexpected world record of 2:07.31. In the final, Sprenger collected bronze and Rickard was unplaced but Sprenger's record still stands.
- Men's 800m freestyle
This is not an Olympic event so it is often an afterthought for distance swimmers but Grant Hackett had set the world record in 2005 and no one had been very close to the time since. China had also never won a men's gold medal at the world championships.
Zhang Lin changed that in amazing fashion when he won in a time of 7:31.12, six and a half seconds inside Hackett's record. Among the 43 world records set in Rome, this was perhaps the starkest example of the effect of the new supersuits.