Swimming: 'Old man' Popov snatches gold from young guns

Alex Popov won an emotional gold medal here last night in a moment of perfection that will echo through the generations as one of the defining moments in swimming.

For all the greatness of Ian Thorpe and the potential of the American Michael Phelps, who set his second world record of the week, the 31-year-old Popov once again stood head and shoulders above them all.

The 100 metres freestyle will be remembered as the greatest event from these world championships. For the first time Thorpe lined up alongside Popov and Pieter van den Hoogenband in the blue riband event. Could Thorpe win his fourth gold of the week? Could Van den Hoogenband, the world record holder, win his first world title? Could Popov, in the twilight of his career, still compete with the younger generation?

Just as Pete Sampras answered his critics to win an historic 13th Grand Slam title at the US Open last year, so Popov wrote another chapter into his remarkable life.

Fastest off the blocks, Popov led from start to finish to win his third title in the event, the only man ever to do so, recording 48.42 seconds and finishing to a standing ovation from the 11,000 crowd at the Palau Sant Jordi.

Popov won every freestyle major event from 1991 to 1999 until he was beaten by Van den Hoogenband that year. He became the first man to successfully defend the Olympic 100m freestyle title since Johnny Weissmuller in 1928.

After that success, he was stabbed to within a centimetre of his life in a street market in Moscow. But still he came back and he continues winning. The winning stopped in 1999, until last night. A disappointed Dutchman won silver and paid tribute to the Russian.

"I did my best and that's all I could do," Van den Hoogenband said. "Popov beat me in a direct dual in a fair way and I can live with that. It motivates me to try and beat him next time."

Thorpe was, for once, overshadowed as he won bronze, his first major medal in the event.

On another outstanding night, Scotland's Ian Edmond won silver in the 200m breaststroke for Britain's fourth medal of the championships.

In the strongest field ever assembled, Edmond swam a courageous race to hang on to the tails of the winner, Japan's Kosuke Kitajima, who set a world record to win his second gold.

In third place with 50 metres to go, Edmond surged past the tiring American defending champion, Brendan Hansen. His time of 2:10.92 was 0.1sec shy of the Commonwealth record he set in the semi-finals, but good enough for silver in a line-up that contained the world champion, the European champion and the world record holder.

"I'm delighted to get a silver medal although I might have wanted to swim a wee bit quicker, but in the final, it's all about being in the race and I got what I wanted," Edmond said.

Edmond and James Gibson are continuing a strong tradition of British breaststrokers that stretches back to David Wilkie 30 years ago.

Phelps continued his awesome form with a world record in the semi-final of the men's 200m individual medley, dominating a field that included Thorpe. It was not the best day for Thorpe, but the Australian is safely into the final of the event, swimming his semi-final just half an hour after the 100m freestyle.

There was no repeat of the gold medal won by the women's 4x200m freestyle relay in Japan two years ago as they swam to fourth. But there was drama in the final moments of the session as the Australian Elka Graham collapsed on the medal rostrum.

Medical specialists would not give the Australian team assurances that her life would not be at risk if she competed after the 21-year-old suffered fainting fits and low blood pressure last month. Graham and her coach pushed for additional medical support to clear her to compete, but her collapse was all the more worrying, coming so soon after the death of the footballer, Marc-Vivien Foé. It is not believed Graham is in a serious condition.