Crocker breaks world record to beat Phelps

Ian Crocker demolished the world record to win the 100 metres butterfly at the world swimming championships on Saturday and ruin Michael Phelps's dream of winning six gold medals in Montreal.

Crocker stormed through two laps of the pool in 50.40 seconds to wipe 0.36 off the previous mark which he set at last year's US Olympic trials at Long Beach, California, and retain the world title he won at Barcelona in 2003.

Phelps was unable to match Crocker's incredible burst of speed and had to settle for second place in 51.65 while Ukraine's Andriy Serdinov was third in 52.08.

"I always assume that whenever I race against Michael it's going to take something amazing like a world record to win," Crocker said.

Crocker's win helped erase some of the lingering pain from his gut-wrenching loss to Phelps in last year's Olympic final when he led all the way but misjudged his touch on the wall, allowing Phelps to sneak through.

It also destroyed Phelps's bid to match Ian Thorpe's record haul of six gold medals at a single world championship. Phelps will still leave the meet as the most decorated athlete with at least four gold medals and a silver but his modest return of two golds and a silver from his five individual events has given him real cause for concern.

"This year, this world championships has been a big wakeup call," he said.

Leisel Jones collected her third gold medal on Saturday as part of the Australian team that won the women's 4x100m medley relay while her 17-year-old compatriot Danni Miatke won her first world title.

Miatke, who left her family in Darwin three years ago to move to Melbourne in the hope of carving out a career as a professional swimmer, upstaged Swedish world record holder Anna-Karin Kammerling to win the 50m butterfly final in 26.11.

Jones, who won the 100m-200m breaststroke double earlier in the week, teamed up with Sophie Edington, Jessicah Schipper and Libby Lenton to win the medley relay for Australia in a combined time of 3:57.47, just 0.15 outside the world record Australia set at last year's Athens Olympics.

The US finished second in 3:59.92 after leading for the first 150m while Germany were third in 4:02.51.

South African sprinter Roland Schoeman, Zimbabwean backstroker Kirsty Coventry and American long-distance swimmer Kate Ziegler all won their second gold medals of the championship.

Schoeman hauled himself off his sick bed to power his way down the pool in 21.69 to win the 50m freestyle splash and dash with the second fastest time in history, just 0.05 outside Alexander Popov's world record.

Coventry broke her own African record to add the 200m backstroke title to her earlier win in the 100m, leading all the way to reach the finish wall in 2:08.52.

Ziegler, 17, also produced a bold front-running display to win the 800m freestyle in 8:25.31 following her runaway victory in the 1,500m won earlier this week.

Canada's Brittany Reimer finished second in 8:27.59 while Japan's Olympic champion Ai Shibata was third in 8:27.86.