Phelps puts world's best tag beyond doubt

MELBOURNE, Apr 1 (Reuters) A week of jaw-dropping performances from Michael Phelps at the world championships has emphatically confirmed him as owner of the moniker 'world's best swimmer'.

The gangling American surpassed the great Ian Thorpe's achievement of six gold medals at Fukuoka by winning an unprecedented seven world titles and eclipsing four individual world records in the process.

''Time-wise and racing-wise this is definitely one of the best meets I've ever had,'' said the 21-year-old from Michigan.

''Being a second or more under my best time in a few events had shocked me a little bit.'' Suggestions at the start of the week that he ranked alongside Tiger Woods and Roger Federer in the pantheon of current sporting greats seemed churlish. They don't now.

After he helped steer the U.S. 4x100m freestyle team to gold on the opening day, Phelps continued his assault on Tuesday with probably the most remarkable feat of all, obliterating Thorpe's 200m freestyle record of six years standing.

The contest against Korea's 400m gold medallist Park Tae-hwan and double Olympic champion Pieter van den Hoogenband had been billed as a rival to 2004's Race of the Century when Thorpe beat Van den Hoogenband and Phelps to 200 freestyle gold in Athens.

But this proved to be no race at all, not even close.

Phelps blasted his way to a new mark of 1 minute 43.86 and erased what many considered the best record in the book.

The men's 200m butterfly record was next to go when he lowered his own mark by almost two seconds to 1:53.09, with his nearest rival in the final more than three seconds in arrears.

ANOTHER RECORD He set his third world record in as many nights and secured his fourth gold on Thursday when he sliced just under a second off his own 200 individual medley record.

Gold number five came on Friday with another world record as the 4x200 freestyle quartet from the U.S. triumphed in 7:03.24, and he out-touched team mate Ian Crocker to win the 100m butterfly final by five hundredths of a second on Saturday.

His chances of eight golds went up in smoke when Crocker mistimed his dive in the 4x100 medley relay heat and the US were disqualified, but Phelps took out his frustration by slicing two seconds off his own 400 individual medley record to cap off the meet of his life.

Ever since he finished fifth in the Olympic 200 butterfly final at Sydney in 2000 aged just 15, he has enjoyed uninterrupted success.

He now has 20 world championship medals and his six-gold haul in Athens seems almost disappointing in hindsight given his extraordinary performances in the unusual surroundings of Rod Laver Arena this week.

But Phelps said the achievement was just another notch as he targets more gold in China next year.

''I'm happy with how it turned out. This is the best case scenario for what we had in mind leading into the Beijing trials and Olympics next year. This is all I could really ask for.

''It's been a long week, but something I needed and I'm extremely satisfied it ended how it did.'' REUTERS SSC KP1839