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Ian Crocker sets new world record for 50m butterfly

Ian Crocker of the US set a world record in the 50m butterfly during the Short Course World Championships on Sunday.

The Americans won two of five finals, giving them 16 victories in 28 events so far. The meet ends Monday.

Crocker touched first in 22.71 seconds, lowering the old mark of 22.74 by Geoff Huegill of Australia at the 2002 championships in Berlin. It was the US' second gold medal in the 25m temporary pool.

Brooke Hanson of Australia won the 100m breaststroke and 200 individual medley, tying the record for most golds at a short course championships with five. American Kaitlin Sandeno won four golds.

"I never thought it would be five gold medals. I'll go to bed a happy girl tonight," said Hanson, who has one event remaining Monday. "Anything can happen and I proved that."

Jenny Thompson anchored the victorious 400m free relay in her final meet before retirement. Amanda Weir, Kara Lynn Joyce, Lindsay Benko and Thompson won in 3 minutes, 35.07 seconds.

Thompson held off fast-closing Swede Therese Alshammar, whose 100m split of 53.20 was quicker than Thompson's 53.75 effort. Aussie anchor Shayne Reese swam 53.82 over the final 100m.

"I'm so honored to be a part of this race, especially to swim with Jenny in her last relay race. She's been such an inspiration to us all," said Benko, who handed off a slight lead to Thompson. "We had a lot of confidence with Jenny anchoring our team."

Sweden was second in 3:35.83 and the Aussies were third in 3:36.18.

Thompson and Joyce were on the 400m medley relay team that finished second to Australia's world record time in a thrilling final Saturday.

Crocker turned and checked the scoreboard, then raised both arms, acknowledging the cheers of 8,421 fans at Conseco Fieldhouse.

Crocker won a gold medal at the Athens Olympics after Michael Phelps gave up his spot in the 400m medley relay final so Crocker could make up for a poor swim in an earlier race. Crocker swam the fly leg and helped the Americans to a world record. Phelps shared the gold, too, after swimming in the preliminaries.

Phelps won the 200m free at this meet before withdrawing Friday because of a back injury.

Crocker dropped out of the 100m fly preliminaries Sunday to conserve energy for the record he wanted to set in the evening.
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