Hickman left in Frolander's wake

James Hickman collected Great Britain's first individual medal of the World Short Course Championships here last night when he took the silver medal in the 100 metres butterfly.

The 24-year-old City of Leeds swimmer, the world 200m butterfly champion, came home 1.09sec behind Sweden's Lars Frolander, who broke the world record for the second time in two days. Hickman said: "I'm not pleased. I always want to win."

Frolander was awesome in Thursday's semi-final when he set the world mark at 50.59sec, and last night the 25-year-old scorched down the pool to shave off a further 0.15sec to set the record at 50.44sec. Ukraine's Denys Sylantyev took the bronze in 51.84sec.

Paul Palmer also took second when Chad Carvin, who missed the American Olympic trials for the 1996 Atlanta Games because of a heart condition, scooped a gold medal in the men's 400m freestyle. The Californian led from start to finish to win by more than 1.5sec from Palmer, who was the fastest qualifier from yesterday morning's heats.

Carvin forged home in 3min 41.13sec to take the gold ahead of Palmer, wearing a full bodysuit, who clocked 3:42.70. Italy's Massimiliano Rosolino, silver medallist in Thursday's 200m freestyle final, added a bronze to his collection in 3:43.68.

The Russian Roman Sludnov broke the men's 100m breaststroke record. Sludnov, who won the European short-course title in Lisbon last December, clocked 58.51sec in his semi-final heat to beat the 58.79sec world mark set in late 1998 by the Olympic champion Frederik Deburghgraeve, of Belgium.

Australia's Rebecca Brown, the former 200m breaststroke long course world record-holder, celebrated her return to top form by winning the world short course title at the distance. Brown won gold in 2:23.41, from Poland's Alicja Peczak (2:24.24) and Australia's Brooke Hanson (2:25.30).

The 200m backstroke world record-holder Lenny Krayzelburg pulled out of the final after injuring a toe. Krayzelburg, the double world long course backstroke champion, received a deep cut on the middle toe of his left foot which required six stitches after Thursday's 50m backstroke final in which he took the silver medal. The Ukrainian-born Krayzelburg contested yesterday morning's 200m backstroke heats after the team doctor numbed his foot with injections. He won his heat in the second-fastest overall final qualifying time of 1:54.34 behind the 1:53.84 of Croatia's Gordan Kozulj.

The American Neil Walker, who set two world records on Thursday, was on course for a second gold medal when he led qualifiers in the men's 100m individual medley in the morning.

Walker clocked 54.57sec to lead the qualifiers for last night's semi-finals ahead of Finland's Jani Sievinen, gold medallist in Thursday's 400m individual medley, who touched in 54.93sec.