July 2001 Sport News Headlines

FUKUOKA - Ian Thorpe proved himself the most prolific winner in the history of the world swimming championships when he took his sixth gold medal by anchoring the Australian 4x100 metres medley relay team to victory on Saturday.

Thorpe overtook Americans Jim Montgomery and Tracy Caulkins, who shared the previous record of five golds in a single world championships - Montgomery in Belgrade in 1973 and Caulkins in West Berlin in 1978.

Thorpe clinched the relay victory as he stretched to the wall with his final stroke after catching American Anthony Ervin at the climax of a desperately close duel between the two teams.

After an agonising wait the Australian win was finally confirmed on the electronic scoreboard, which also showed that the Americans and the Dutch had been disqualified.

Ervin, who burst ahead of Thorpe on the first length, and Olympic champion Pieter van den Hoogenband, the man he had defeated to win Friday's 100 freestyle, both took off too soon, according to the official results."

"I was surprised to hear him (Ervin) hit the water first because of the position Geoff (Huegill) had put us in," said Thorpe, whose team mate had actually handed over a slight lead."

"I knew Anthony would get ahead of me as Gary Hall did at the Olympics but on the way back I could see where I was and I really put my head down and went for the wall."

"Thorpe won two golds at the last world championships in Perth in 1998 and now has eight in all, the number East German Kornelia Ender collected from the first two editions in 1973 and 1975.

In his astonishing sequence in Fukuoka, Thorpe broke his own world records in winning the 200, 400 and 800 freestyle, shared another world record in the 4x200 freestyle relay and anchored the winning 4x100 freestyle and medley relays."

"I'm pretty disappointed actually - no, I shouldn't joke," he said.

"I've been able to put some personal bests on the board and I'm glad to be back swimming well after the Olympics.

It's very encouraging, leading into the next Olympics." - Nampa-Reuters

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