In Wednesday's women's 200m freestyle, Alena Popchanka of Belarus won the gold medal in 1:58.32, beating silver medalist Martina Moravcova (1:58.44) of Slovakia and bronze medalist Yang Yu of China (1:58.54).
James Gibson won Britain's first world championship gold medal since 1975 by taking the 50 breaststroke title. Gibson clocked 27.56. Oleg Lisogor of Ukraine took silver (27.74) while Mihaly Flaskay of Hungary got the bronze (27.79).
"I won that race in the heats and semis," Gibson said. "They had to come out and beat me today. I made sure I got it in their heads they weren't going to."
Twenty-eight years ago, David Wilkie won both the 100m and 200m breaststroke for Britain.
"British breaststrokers are here and here to stay," Gibson said.
In the 100m freestyle, world record-holder Pieter van den Hoogenband, who had the quickest time in the morning heats, also topped the semifinals.
The Dutch sprinter covered the single lap in the Palau St. Jordi pool in 48.39, 0.55 seconds off his world record of 47.84 set at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
Russia's Alexander Popov was second in 48.51 and Thorpe was third in 48.71.
Each of the top three finishers improved on their times from the morning heats.
"It won't be easy tomorrow because Popov is in great shape," Van den Hoogenband said of his Russian rival for Thursday's final.
Don't count out Thorpe either. The 100m is not his specialty, but his time Wednesday was his best.
"It's quite a while since I've done a PB so I was really pleased," Thorpe said. "I'm looking forward to the final tomorrow. Hopefully I'll be able to back it up in the IM as well."
RSS