World Championships: Elusive Gold Located by Therese Alshammar

By John Lohn

MELBOURNE, Australia, March 31. A veteran of the international sprint ranks, Sweden's Therese Alshammar captured the first world championship of her career by soaring past the competition in the 50 butterfly. One night after setting a championship record of 25.82, Alshammar was slightly slower, but quick enough to prevail in 25.91.

Alshammar has now won a medal of each color in the 50 fly during her World Champs career, having snared silver at the 2001 meet in Fukuoka, Japan and bronze in Montreal two years ago. She's long been one of the world's top sprinters, equally efficient in the 50 and 100 freestyle. Her gold medal came at the expense of the defending champion.

Looking for back-to-back crowns, Australian Danni Miatke earned the silver medal with a time of 26.05, quicker than what it took for her to win in 2005. The bronze medal was won by Inge Dekker of the Netherlands in 26.11 and fourth went to world-record holder Anna-Karin Kammerling of Sweden in 26.32. American Rachel Komisarz was fifth in 26.41.

Click Here to view event results PDF file.

Check back for an updated story on this event as our team of Senior Writer John Lohn and CEO Brent Rutemiller, on the scene at Rod Laver Arena, provide in-depth coverage, along with radio and TV segments.

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