Championships leave many questions unanswered

Plenty of questions were left unanswered at the 11th world championships that finished on Sunday even if there were no major surprises.

Swimming's world order remained the same as at last year's Athens Olympics with the United States retaining their position at the top and Australia closing on them in second place.

There was little significant movement from the other nations although Africa confirmed its position as a growing force in swimming with Zimbabwe and South Africa each winning two titles.

The Netherlands, without Pieter van den Hoogenband and Inge de Bruijn, failed to win a single gold while China also came up empty-handed.

Everyone expected the Chinese to resurface as a power with the countdown to the 2008 Beijing Olympics gathering pace but a dismal performance left rivals confused.

Michael Phelps finished the eight-day meet as the most decorated athlete with five gold medals but the jury is still out on his performance.

The American had been attempting to win a record eight titles, a task made even harder by his decision to drop some of his favourite events in search of new challenges.

Phelps retained his 200 metres individual medley crown and won his world freestyle title with victory in the 200 but was eliminated in the heats of the 400, finished seventh in the 100 final and second behind Ian Crocker in the 100 butterfly.

The absence of so many Olympic champions, including Ian Thorpe, van den Hoogenband, de Bruijn and Yana Klochkova, of Ukraine, led to calls for the championships to be switched back to every four years instead of every two.

It also did not help struggling ticket sales with organisers losing $4 million on the event despite nine world records in eight days and some outstanding individual performances.

There was little argument over who was the success of the meet as Australia's Grant Hackett, 25, put Phelps and the absent Thorpe in the shade with stunning victories in the 400, 800 and 1,500.

He won the 400 to become the first swimmer to win gold medals at four world meets, broke Thorpe's world record to add the 800, then demolished his rivals to win the 1,500 and become the first swimmer to win the same event four times and the first to win seven individual world titles in a career.

Backstroke ace Peirsol

Aaron Peirsol also won three golds and set a world record in the 200 to continue his domination of backstroke while his fellow American Brendan Hansen won three golds in breaststroke as the US won 10 of the 20 men's events.

Australians Leisel Jones and Libby Lenton and American teenager Katie Hoff all won three golds each through a combination of individual and relay wins.

Australia won half of the 20 women's events and might have clinched another after a controversial finish to the 200 butterfly final.

"The women's team was great and the performance of the men's team was not so great, notwithstanding the excellent performances by Grant Hackett," Australian head coach Alan Thompson said.