Cavic tops 50m butterfly, Torres eliminated

Rome - Serbian Milorad Cavic topped the heats in the men's 50-metre butterfly at the world championships in the Foro Italico on Friday, while there was disappointment for 42-year-old Dara Torres as she was eliminated from the women's 50m butterfly. Cavic, who maintains that he beat superstar Michael Phelps at the Beijing Olympics, but that the timing was faulty to give the American victory, swam a 50.56, beating American Tler McGill into second place by 0.34. Phelps, who swam two heats later, was on course to beat his own world record at the turn, but then eased off but still comfortably won his heat in 50.90 to register the third-fastest time. Cavic said that he had expected the swims to be even faster. 'I expect the finals to go 23 or 23.1 at the turn. 'There is no reason to push harder than I have to. This is just the beginning to get to the semi-finals and in the semi-finals I will not push myself any harder than I need to get into the finals,' the American-born swimmer said. Zimbabwean world record holder in the women's 200m backstroke, Kirsty Coventry, led the field into the final in the championship record time of 2:06.72, beating Margaret Hoelzer's old best mark of 2:07.16. Britain's Gemma Spofforth was second-fastest in 2:07.69, while American Elizabeth Beizel finished in 2:07.98 for the third-fastest time. In the women's 800m freestyle, Briton's world record holder Rebecca Adlington had the fastest qualifying time into the final. She swam a 8:20.53, beating her compatriot Joanne Jackson by .27 seconds. Local favourite Alessia Filippi, who won the gold in the 1,500m, had the fourth-fastest time with a 8:24.03 to comfortably qualify for Saturday's final. In the men's 200m 4x200m freestyle relay, double gold medal winner Paul Biedermann gave Germany an early lead in the final heat, but the other German swimmers could not withstand the pressure from America and Japan and had to let them past. The two countries tied for the fastest-time with 7:03.30, while Germany finished with a 7:05.62. Australia, which swam in a different heat, had the third-fastest time with 7:05.56. In the women's 50m butterfly, Torres was eliminated with the 17th fastest time, just five hundredths behind Daniela Samulski, who was the slowest qualifier for the semi-finals. Sweden's Therese Alshammar managed to beat her own championship record with the fastest qualifying time in 25.44, beating the 25.58 of Dutch world record holder Magdalena Veldhuis. Alshammar's previous record stood at 25.82. Brazilian Cesar Cielo Filho, who on Thursday won the men's 100m freestyle in world record time, broke the championship record in the 50m freestyle, when he qualified for the semi-finals with a time of 21.37. Sweden's Stefan Nystrand had the second-fastest time, 0.19 off the pace, while world record holder Frederick Bousquet was third in the rankings in 21.63. On Friday evening, the finals of the women's 100m freestyle, 200m backstroke and the 4x200m freestyle relay, as well as the women's 100m freestyle, the 200m breaststroke will be swum. The championships, which started on July 17, ends Sunday.