Closing ceremony rounds up Phelps festival

By Peter Auf der Heyde Apr 1, 2007, 17:05 GMT

Michael Phelps of the USA is pictured during a photo shooting for his sponsor OMEGA in the Susie O\'Neill pool at the FINA Swimming World Championships in Melbourne, Australia, Sunday 01 April 2007. EPA/PATRICK B. KRAEMER

Melbourne - A short ceremony saw the curtain falling Sunday on the 12th world swimming championships in Melbourne that saw Michael Phelps rewrite the record books with seven gold medals and five world records.

Phelps is now the most successful swimmer in the history of the competition.

The flags of the participating countries were then brought onto the poolside, accompanied by athletes from many of the countries. Thereafter the FINA President Mustapha Larfaoui addressed the crowd.

The Premier of the state of Victoria, Steve Bracks, then officially declared the championships closed after water from the Susie O'Neil pool in the Rod Laver Arena had been taken and given to the organizing committee of the next championships in Rome in 2009.

The same was done at this championships, where water from the 2005 hosts Montreal was added to the pool in Melbourne, it will be put in the pool in Rome in two years time.

A popular Australian pop group called the Rogue Traders then entertained those fans who had remained behind at the venue.

Earlier, Phelps and Katie Hoff added another two world records on the final night of competition to take the total numbers of records to 14.

Hoff won the women's 400m medley in four minutes 32.89 seconds, while Phelps took the men's 400m medley in 4:06.22 minutes. Jessica Hardy was another US winner on the night with gold in the women's 50m breaststroke.

The other gold medals on the nights went to South African Gerhard Zandberg, who took the men's 50m backstroke, while Poland's Mateusz Sawrymowicz stunned the rest of the field to take the men's 1,500m freestyle.

The most popular winners of the night though were Libby Lenton, who won her fifth gold medal of the championships when she took first place in the women's 50m freestyle, and the Australian 4x100m medley relay team.

Lenton won in a time of 24.53 seconds to beat Sweden's Therese Alshammar into second place by 0.09 seconds. Marleen Veldhuis from the Netherlands took third place in 0.17.

She said she was thrilled with her performance at the championships. 'Honestly, it's a special feeling to race so consistently over eight days. I wasn't expecting to win one, let alone five. I just wanted to go out there and have fun.'

The Australian medley relay team then won a thrilling final race of the competition by beating Japan and Russia into second and third place. They benefited from an earlier disqualification of the US who were disqualified in the heats.

Australia finished with a time of three minutes 34.93 seconds, while Japan was 0.23 seconds behind. Russia had a time of 3:35.51 minutes.

Hoff was trailing Russian Yana Martynova for the first 170m, but then had no problems in moving past her opponent. She soon put some distance between herself and Martynova and never looked back as she took the race in a time of 4.32.89 minutes, beating the old world record mark by 0.70 seconds.

The Russian finished second 7.25 seconds behind, while Stephanie Rice won bronze for Australia in a time of 4:41.19 minutes.

In the 1,500m freestyle, Sawrymowicz led from start to finish to take the race in a time of 14:45.94 minutes. Russian Yury Prilukov took the silver in 14:47.29, while the bronze went to Britain's David Davies with a time of 14:51.21.

Phelps became the first person to win seven gold medals at a single world championship as he won the 400m medley in world record time.

His time of four minutes 06.22 seconds shaved an enormous 2.04 seconds off his old record that he had set in 2004.

His compatriot Ryan Lochte took the silver in 4:09.74, while the bronze went to Luca Marin in 4:09.88.

Phelps will leave these championships with seven gold medals and five world records from his 16 races. He was on track for a historic eight gold medals, but the 4x100m medley relay team was disqualified in the heats earlier Sunday.

The outstanding athlete at this championship was philosophical about losing out on the chance of an eighth gold medal.

'We come to these championships as a team and things sometimes don't happen as we want them to. Better this year than next year at the Olympics,' he said.

South African Zandberg won his country's second gold medal in Melbourne with victory in the men's 50m backstroke in a time of 24.98.

German world record holder Thomas Rupprath was second in 25.20 seconds, while the bronze went to Briton Liam Tancock.

Hardy took the gold in the women's 50m breaststroke. Her time of 30.63 beat local favourite Leisel Jones by just 0.07 seconds. The bronze was won by fellow-US swimmer Tara Kirk.

'I just went out there to have a good race. I am happy. It's my personal best and probably a US record. I just felt very strong,' Hardy said.

Croatia were first-time winners in the water polo tournament after beating Hungary in a tight final that the Croats could only win 9-8 after extra time.

Spain won the bronze medal after defeating Serbia on penalties. The three medalist have qualified for the Beijing Olympics as a result.