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Phelps, Hoogenband set up showdown

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MELBOURNE, Australia -- Swimming superstars Ian Phelps and Pieter van den Hoogenband stayed on course for a classic showdown in Tuesday's 200 meters freestyle final with dominant displays in qualification.

Phelps, aiming for an astonishing haul of eight gold medals at the world championships in Melbourne, took his semifinal on Monday in one minute 47.45 seconds, while Dutch ace Hoogenband was equally assured in finishing a body length clear in one minute 46.33 seconds.

Phelps led off as the United States 4 x 100 meters freestyle relay team claimed gold on the opening day and is favorite for the 200 meters individual event after the retirement of world record holder Ian Thorpe of Australia.

Van den Hoogenband was blowing the harder after a tougher qualification with Italian Massimiliano Rosolino and 400 meters winner Park Tae-Hwan of South Korean finishing second and third.

Phelps and van den Hoogenband were part of the "Race of the Century" at the 2004 Athens Olympics, with Hoogenband finishing second and Phelps third behind gold medalist Thorpe.

Lenton double

In finals on Monday night, Australia's Libby Lenton bagged her second gold medal of the world championships.

She edged out her Australian teammate Jessicah Schipper to win the 100 meters butterfly final 24 hours after helping the host nation to victory in the women's 4x100 freestyle final.

The U.S. also won two gold medals in the Susie O'Neill pool on Monday, Brendan Hansen beating his Japanese rival Kosuke Kitajima in the 100 breaststroke and teenager Katie Hoff retaining her 200 individual medley title.

South Africa collected their first gold medal when Roland Schoeman powered to victory in the 50 butterfly final but it was the stunning performance of Lenton that stole the show.

Lenton fought off a determined challenge from Schipper to win in 57.15 and stay on course for a record seven golds.

"I'm just taking it one step at a time," Lenton told reporters. "They're all very good competitors but I'm also a pretty good competitor."

Hansen appeared to bury the hatchet in his ongoing "feud" with Kitajama as he acknowledged the quality of his rival.

"That was definitely a battle," Hansen said. "I take my hat off to him, he's a great competitor."

"Hansen is a very young strong swimmer and I respect him," Kitajima said.

"I was just one stroke behind him but I am happy with the way I swam."

China dominate

Just a day after Guo Jingjing made history by winning the same world championship event for a fourth successive time, the Chinese repeated the trick on Tuesday with victory in the women's 3m synchronised springboard final.

The 25-year-old glamor girl of the Chinese team retained the title with partner Wu Minxia as their country wrapped up the competition programme with nine diving golds out of a possible 10.

Lin Yue and Huo Liang recovered from an indifferent performance in the preliminaries to clinch the final title of the championships in the men's 10m synchronised platform.

Guo, who won the individual title on Monday, repeated the 3m springboard double at her fourth consecutive championships after her successes at Fukuoka (2001), Barcelona (2003) and Montreal (2005).

She and Wu were never headed and claimed gold with 355.80 points from Germany's Ditte Kotzian and Heike Fischer (318.45) in silver. Australia's Sharleen Stratton and Briony Cole (302.82) secured the bronze.

"Sometimes I really need to motivate myself to keep training hard," Guo told reporters at the Melbourne Sports and Aquatics Centre.

"No matter how tired I am, no matter how frustrated I am, when you keep working hard, you will receive the amazing reward in the future."

Lin and Huo were shocked by American 17-year-olds David Boudia and Thomas Finchum in Tuesday's heats, but restored normal service with a tense victory over Russians Gleb Galperin and Dmitry Dobroskok in the final.

They won with a total of 489.48 points ahead of the Russian duo (467.16) with the U.S. pairing (463.56) third.

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