Ian Crocker second in 100m butterfly American Hansen wins 200 breaststroke

FUKUOKA, Japan – American teen-ager Brendan Hansen upstaged the Olympic gold and silver medalists Thursday, winning the men’s 200-meter breaststroke at the world swimming championships.

Hansen won in 2 minutes, 10.69 seconds, breaking the meet record of 2:11.23 set by fellow American Mike Barrowman at the 1991 championships.

Olympic gold medalist Domenico Fioravanti was fourth and Olympic silver medalist Ed Moses of the United States fifth, both more than 0.6 behind the 19-year-old winner.

“This is unbelievable,” Hansen said. “I knew I had a 2:10 in me.

“I just went into the race and I didn’t look around at all. I couldn’t believe when I looked up that I was the winner,” he added.

Moses said, “If I can’t do it, it’s good to have an American win it.”

American Ian Crocker of Portland had a good showing in the 100-meter butterfly, but Sweden’s Olympic champion Lars Frolander held off Crocker and Australian Geoff Huegill for the gold medal in 52.10 seconds.

Crocker, who attends the University of Texas, was clocked in 52.25. He finished fourth in the same event at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and was expected to swim Friday in the 50 fly and then in Saturday 400 medley relay.

“It’s a shame I couldn’t set a world record, but now I’ve got the European championships, the Olympics and a world championships gold, so I’m very happy,” Frolander said.

His 52.10 was .29 behind the world mark of 51.81 held by Australian Michael Klim, who finished seventh in 52.91.

Klim refused to blame a recent ankle injury in an impromptu basketball game.

“The race was there for the taking, but my start was off and it just didn’t happen,” he said.

Dutch sprinter Inge de Bruijn became the world championships’ second multi-gold medalist, winning comfortably in the women’s 50-meter butterfly.

With her second gold, however, de Bruijn still was well behind Australia’s Ian Thorpe, who has won three individual golds, broken three world records and picked up a relay gold as well.

Thorpe lost twice to Dutch rival Pieter van den Hoogenband on Thursday, but van den Hoogenband’s only reward was a chance to race the Australian again Friday for the 100-meter freestyle gold medal.

The morning after Thorpe beat van den Hoogenband by 1.75 seconds for the world championship in the 200-meter freestyle, and broke his own world record, the two were side-by-side in heats for the 100.

Van den Hoogenband beat Thorpe 48.96 to 49.21.

Then in the evening semifinals, side-by-side again, the Dutchman needed a meet record 48.57 to win. Thorpe, in seventh at the halfway point, charged into second in 48.96.

American Anthony Ervin, Olympic gold medalist and world champion at 50 meters, won his semifinal in 49.43, with teammate Jason Lezak second in 49.49.

Van den Hoogenband beat Thorpe for gold at 200 meters in last year’s Olympics, where the Dutchman also won the 100 – an event where Thorpe is just starting to compete.

Amid the race program came the delayed medal ceremony for the women’s 800-meter freestyle relay, after an appeals jury upheld the disqualifications of the first-place Australians and second-place U.S. quartet.

Britain accepted the gold, Germany the silver and Japan the bronze to the accompaniment of loud applause, especially for the Japanese.

The jury convened by FINA, swimming’s world governing body, said Australia had clearly violated the rules when its swimmers jumped into the pool to celebrate before the last Italian swimmer had finished the race. The Australians had finished first in a meet record 7 minutes, 56.00 seconds.

It also upheld the disqualification of the Americans on grounds their second swimmer started too soon.

The American team disagreed with the jury’s finding that the timing devices “worked perfectly during the race.” It said the touchpad in the Americans’ lane had malfunctioned several times, and that videotape showed a proper start. It urged FINA to reconsider.

De Bruijn, who came to this meet with three Olympic golds and four world records, but no world championships golds, won her first Wednesday in the 100 freestyle.