Japan's Kitajima targets world treble

Double Olympic champion Kosuke Kitajima will be aiming for a breaststroke treble at next month's world swimming championships, Japanese officials said yesterday.

Kitajima, who won gold in the 100 and 200 metres at the 2004 Athens Olympics, is set to swim the 50, 100 and 200m at the world championships in Melbourne.

The 24-year-old destroyed American rival Brendan Hansen in Athens and celebrated in decidedly un-Japanese fashion on leaving the pool by yelling: "I kicked his butt!"

Kitajima soon suffered an Olympic hangover, however, his career mysteriously sliding into serious decline. He reached rock bottom when he flopped at last year's Japanese championships.

But Kitajima has said he is approaching his best form again following some intense high-altitude training in Arizona.

The pool competition at the World Championships begins on March 25 and runs until April 1.

World short course 800m freestyle champion Anastasiya Ivanenko faces a two-year ban after testing positive for a banned substance. Ivanenko tested positive for the diuretic furosemide, a masking agent, during an out-of-competition test on Jan. 23.