More gold for Phelps as Magnini wins big one

Michael Phelps captured his third gold medal on a controversial and dramatic night at the world championships on Thursday in Montreal.

The American won the 200 metres individual medley title an hour after he bombed out in the 100m freestyle final surprisingly won by Italian Filippo Magnini.

Otylia Jedrzejczak of Poland then broke her own world record to win the women's 200m butterfly final after a thrilling duel with Australia's Jessicah Schipper.

However, television replays suggested Jedrzejczak should have been disqualified for an illegal touch, although she was allowed to keep her gold medal.

Australian officials decided not to lodge a protest but called on swimming's world governing body to review their existing regulations on the use of video evidence.

"Under the current rules of swimming you can put a protest in, but unfortunately video evidence can't be used as evidence," Australian head coach Alan Thompson said.

"But I think if the referees had seen an infraction I believe they would have reported that and that would have been the case."

Australia did grab one gold on Thursday when Giaan Rooney won the women's 50m backstroke final but the United States kept their lead on the medals table through Phelps and the women's 4x200m freestyle relay team.

Phelps joined Ian Thorpe and Grant Hackett as the only swimmers to win six individual world titles with his victory in the medley, but his failure in the 100m ended his chances of winning at least seven and equalling Mark Spitz's tally from the '72 Munich Olympics.

Phelps had needed to win the blue-riband sprint to keep alive his dream of breaking Thorpe's record of six gold medals at a single world championship but he could only finish seventh.

The Italian stormed home on the last lap after being fourth at the turn to flash past the South African duo of Roland Schoeman and Ryk Neethling.

Magnini's winning time of 48.12 seconds made him the second fastest man in history behind world record holder Pieter van den Hoogenband.

"For me, it was a dream to be at the top," Magnini said.

"I thought it would be third place because the two South Africans are very strong."

Jedrzejczak overtook Schipper in the final stroke to win gold in 2:05.61, wiping 0.17 off the previous record she set at the 2002 European championships in Berlin.

Schipper, who won the 100m butterfly title earlier this week, also went under the old mark, finishing in 2:05.65.

Galea record in 50m 'fly

Angela Galea underlined her reputation as Malta's best swimmer in women's butterfly events when clocking a national record in 50m during yesterday's heats in Montreal.

Galea was in Heat 4. She swam the one-lap race in 29.84 seconds, a fraction of a second better than the previous best time of 29.86 which she had established in March 2002.

Also in the 50m 'fly heats yesterday was the upcoming Davina Mangion. In Heat 3 her timing was an improved 30.27 seconds.

Overall, 65 swimmers competed in the women's 50m butterfly heats. Galea was classified 47th and Mangion 53rd.

Waterpolo

Men's semi-finals: Hungary vs Greece 7-6 (2-1, 3-2, 1-1, 1-2); Croatia vs Serbia 4-5 (2-3, 0-0, 0-1, 2-1).