City of Perth's Travis Nederpelt should stop cutting his fingernails after missing the final of the 200m Butterfly by 0.10. Nederpelt clocked 1:57.46 to place fifth in the first semi final and 9th overall with Poland’s Pawel Korzeniowski fastest in 1:56.11.
The final will be one of the most open in recent memory after world record Michael Phelps elected not to contest the event in Montreal this year.
Leisel Jones became a world champion and Grant Hackett became the greatest medal winner in World Championship history on the third night of finals at the XIth FINA World Swimming Championships in Montreal.
Jones ensured the Telstra Dolphins continued on their winning way taking out the 100m breaststroke while Hackett was second to Michael Phelps in the 200m freestyle earning him his 14th World Championship medal, one more than Ian Thorpe, German great Michael Gross and American Jenny Thompson.
But the day belonged to ‘Lethal Leisel’ who swam a personal best of 1:06.25 on her way to victory over American Jessica Hardy, marking her finest individual moment and finally putting to rest any questions about her ability to perform at the highest level.
Since storming onto the international swimming scene as a raw 15-year-old at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney where she won the silver medal, Jones had broken world records and won individual silver and bronze medals at Olympic and World Championship level – but never gold.
Now Jones is a deserving world champion and after the race she shed a tear and looked skywards in an emotional thank you to all those that had supported her in Australia.
“I’m quite overwhelmed by all this,” Jones said “It’s been five long years with a lot of expectation and a lot of pressure.”
“So many people have stuck by me and this is for all of them.”
Jones had left former coach Ken Wood after last year’s Olympics to train alongside Libby Lenton with Stephan Widmer’s squad and she also paid tribute her new training partner and mentor.
“I’ve done things differently this time around with Stephan and we have worked on hundreds of things.” Jones said.
“I slept badly last night but I had a few words to Libby and she gave me some sound advice.”
Hardy, who had snared the Australian’s world record in yesterday’s semi finals when she set a new mark of 1:06.20, was slower today posting a still impressive 1:06.62.
Ironically Jones had been in the same position as Hardy at the 2003 World Championships, smashing the world record in the semi finals before swimming slower in the final and missing out on the gold.
Another American Tara Kirk was third in 1:07.43 and Australia’s World Short Course champion Brooke Hanson fifth in 1:08.07.
Hackett improved on his third place from the 2003 World Championship in Barcelona but instead of running into Thorpe and Dutchman Pieter van den Hoogenband the Telstra Dolphins captain faced a pumped up Michael Phelps.
Phelps took the lead half way down the second lap and was never headed, stopping the clock in a new American record of 1:45.20 - the tenth fastest time in history.
Hackett powered from fourth at the 100m mark, overhauling all but Phelps, finishing in 1:46.14 ahead of South African Ryk Neethling (1:46.63).
Hackett now has eight gold, five silver and one bronze medal at four FINA World Championships with his main two events of this meet – the 800m and 1500m freestyle still to come.
Hackett’s team mate Nic Sprenger, swimming in his maiden individual international final, was fifth in another personal best of 1:47.09 adding confidence to the Dolphin’s chances in the 4x200m freestyle relay on Day six of the meet.
Kingscliff’s Sophie Edington was eighth in the women’s 100m backstroke final, won by Zimbabwe’s Kirsty Coventry, with a time of 1:01.97
Coventry caused a major boil over snatching the gold medal from German veteran Antje Buschschulte and America’s 2004 Olympic champion and world record holder Natalie Coughlin.
The Zimbabwean, who trains in the USA, swam over the top of Coughlin over the last 30 metres, reversing the result from last year’s Olympics where she won the silver medal, her winning time of 1:00.24 moving her into fifth position on the all-time list for the event.
Buschschulte, the 2003 World champion clocked 1:00.84 and Coughlin 1:00.88.
In semi finals action, Linda MacKenzie earnt a berth in her second final of the week when she qualified fifth fastest for the 200m final with a time of 1:59.00.
The fastest placed swimmer leading into tomorrow’s final is Frenchwoman Solenne Figues with a time of 1:58.75 while the last qualifier clocked 1:59.35, meaning any one of the eight finalists, including MacKenzie, could win.
Brenton Rickard qualified for his first ever long course World Championship final after he posted the 8th fastest time in a tight 50m breaststroke that saw just 0.31 between fastest qualifier Hugues Duboscq (27.73) and Rickard.
Rickard’s time of 28.04 was just 0.02 outside his own Australian record.
In the first final of the evening 17-year-old American Kate Ziegler became the third fastest woman in history for the 1500m freestyle when she claimed the gold medal in her World Championships debut.
Ziegler just missed crashing through the 16 minute barrier with her time of 16:00.41, ahead of Switzerland’s Flavia Rigamonti (16:04.34) and Canadian Brittany Reimer (16:07.73).
Australia’s only representative in the event, Sarah Paton finished tenth after the heats.
While Natalie Coughlin was upset her compatriot Aaron Peirsol suffered no such problem, comfortably defending his 100m backstroke world title.
Peirsol clocked 53.62 to beat team mate Randall Bal (54.02) and Hungarian Laszlo Cseh (54.27).