FLASH!! Japan’s Kitajima Breaks World Record in the 100 Breast

Kitajima was only sixth at the halfway mark tonight, turning in 28.61 seconds. Britain's James Gibson was first at the turn in 27.86, followed by teammate Darren Mew, 28.35, and the USA's Brendan Hansen, 28.49. But the Japanese pocket rocket came back in 31.10 –far faster than any of his competitors — to snatch the gold and the record.

After his race, Kitajima told SwimInfo: "Of course I am very happy about the world record. This is a good motivation for next year (the 2004 Olympics) as well. I was relaxed in the first 50, then I sped up, which seemed to have worked very well!"

The USA's Hansen was second in 1:00.21, followed by Gibson at 1:00.37. The USA's Ed Moses was a disappointing fourth, 1:00.87, while 2000 Olympic champ, Italy's Domenico Fioravanti, was sixth in 1:01.23, behind Canada's Morgan Knabe (1:01.07).

Yesterday, Kitajima became only the second man to crack the magic minute barrier in the 100 breast with his 59.98 in the semifinals. Today, he proved that he is the greatest 100-meter braeststroker in history, bar none.

Most experts feel that Kitajima's best event is the 200 meter breaststroke, so this swim today sets him up nicely to recapture the double century world mark taken from him last month by Russia's Dmitri Komornikov.