The men’s 100m butterfly ranked among the meet’s most anticipated races as Phelps went head-to-head with world record-holder Ian Crocker (Portland, Maine). Crocker easily won Friday’s semi-final, but tonight would end differently as Phelps unseated the reigning world champ, continuing his perfect record in the meet so far. Phelps and Crocker were even through almost the entire race, but Phelps touched the wall first in 50.77. Crocker finished just five-hundredths behind to win the silver medal in 50.82. Phelps, who will swim in the 400m individual medley and the 400m medley relay tomorrow, has won six gold medals so far in this meet. No swimmer has ever surpassed that mark. Additionally, Phelps’ 19 career world championship medals (16 gold, 3 silver) make him the most decorated swimmer in the history of the event.

Margaret Hoelzer (Huntsville, Ala.) bested her own American record in the women’s 200m backstroke to add to Team USA’s gold medal haul. The only American swimmer in the event, Hoelzer entered as the top seed after setting an American record in today’s semi-finals. In tonight’s race, Hoelzer bested her American record and set a new world championships record in 2:07.16. The world championship gold medal was the first of her career, and came on her 24th birthday.

The men’s 50m freestyle final also sent two Americans to the medal stand. Ben Wildman-Tobriner (San Francisco, Calif.), who recently set an American record in the event, finished in 21.88 and just edged reigning national champion Cullen Jones (New Brunswick, NJ). Jones took the silver medal in 21.94, while Stefan Nystrand of Sweden took bronze in 21.97.

In the women’s 800m freestyle, Kate Ziegler (Great Falls, Va.) and France’s Laure Manadou battled through more than a half-mile, trading leads for 750 meters. Manadou led by a half-second at the final turn, but Ziegler pulled ahead in the final stretch to win her second gold medal of the meet in a championships record of 8:18.52. Manadou finished second in 8:18.80. Hayley Peirsol (Irvine, Calif.) won a bronze medal for the U.S., touching in 8:26.42.

The evening concluded as Australia set its first world record - the 12th of the meet - as the women’s 400m medley relay took gold in 3:55.74. The U.S. squad of Natalie Coughlin (Vallejo, Calif.), Tara Kirk (Bremerton, Wash.), Rachael Komisarz (Louisville, Ky.) and Lacey Nymeyer (Tucson, Ariz.) grabbed the silver medal in 3:58.31. The bronze medal went to China in 4:01.97. With the medal, Coughlin surpassed American star Jenny Thompson, and now reigns as the most decorated female swimmer in World Championship history with 16 medals (6 gold, 6 silver, 4 bronze).

In other finals action, Komisarz just missed the medal stand, finishing fifth in the 50m butterfly. Komisarz’s time of 26.41 was just three-tenths of a second shy of the bronze. Therese Alshammar (Sweden) took the gold medal in 25.91, while Danni Miatke (Australia) took silver in 26.05 and Inge Dekker (Netherlands) was the bronze medalist in 26.11.

Semi-final races conducted tonight saw four Americans advance to the last night of finals. In the women’s 50m breaststroke, Jessica Hardy (Long Beach, Calif.) moved on as the number two seed (31.09) while Kirk advanced as the number five seed in 31.27. Moving on with sprint events, Kara Lynn Joyce (Ann Arbor, Mich.) won her heat and advanced as the number two seed in 24.80, and Coughlin advanced as the seventh seed in 25.08.

World Championship finals action continues tomorrow night at 7 p.m. local time (5 a.m. EDT) with races in the men’s 400m individual medley, 1500m freestyle and 400m medley relay, as well as the 50m backstroke and freestyle. The women will compete for medals in the 50m breaststroke and freestyle and 400m individual medley.

About USA Swimming
As the National Governing Body for competitive swimming in the United States, USA Swimming formulates the rules, implements policies and procedures, conducts national championships, disseminates safety and sports medicine information and selects athletes to represent the United States in international competition. USA Swimming has more than 300,000 members nationwide and sanctions more than 7,000 events each year. For more information, visit http://www.usaswimming.org/.