Barcelona, July 23: Ian Thorpe of Australia has successfully defended his men's 200m freestyle title at the World Swimming Championships. It is the tenth world gold for the 20-year-old world record holder over the distance who clocked 1min 45.14sec to push Olympic champion Pieter Van Den Hoogenband of the Netherlands into second in 1:46.43 with Australian Grant Hackett taking the bronze in 1:46.85.
Van Den Hoogenband had been bidding to claim the title after being runner-up at the last world championships in Fukuoka, where Thorpe set a new world record after being pushed into second by the Dutchman at the Sydney Olympics. Thorpe already has more world titles than any swimmer ever, and has not been beaten in an individual world championships' race since he became swimming's youngest world champion at 15 when he won the 400m freestyle in Perth.
He became the first swimmer ever to win three consecutive titles in the one race at the weekend when he won gold in the 400m at the weekend. Bureau Report