Swimming: Pilczuk ends Popov's reign

Talented youngsters breathe fresh life into the swimming world championships; James Parrack in Perth sees a new generation make their mark in the pool

ON FRIDAY the world swimming championships had a glimpse of what might have been. Two Chinese women dominated the 200 metres individual medley, the winner a full three seconds in front of the rest and a fraction away from her own world record.

It was a reminder of the debt the championships owes to the Australian customs officer who uncovered 13 vials of human growth hormone in the Chinese team's baggage and breathed life into an event which came perilously close to becoming the world doping championships.

Thankfully, this was in contrast to the poor showing of the rest of the Chinese team. So, with the turtle soup tasting a little different this week, the focus was on the action in the pool. And yesterday's finals perfectly demonstrated the changing face of world swimming, as Alex Popov, the Russian Tsar of freestyle sprinters, was dramatically defeated in the 50 metres and Bill Pilczuk was the name tripping uneasily off the lips of the 10,000 spectators.

Popov is the Michael Jordan of swimming. He has totally dominated his sport, winning every international title since his debut in 1991. He is the only man successfully to retain the 100 metres freestyle since Johnny "Tarzan" Weissmuller. He won his fourth straight European title in Seville last summer and successfully defended his 100 metres world crown here on Wednesday.

But he is in good company. This week also witnessed the decline and fall of one Hungarian breaststroke empire and the rise of another. As multiple gold medallists, Norbert Rozsa and Karoly Guttler hardly made an impression, the 16-year-old Agnes Kovacs added the world to her European title to establish a legacy of her own.

Kovacs was one of several fearless youngsters whose talent has yet to burden their expectations. However, their undoubted leader is the Australian Michael Klim. The 20-year-old has collected three gold medals so far and is likely to be the man to follow Popov and dominate the next generation of world swimmers.

He has a good teacher as he and Popov are training partners at the Australian Institute of Sport. But they provide a dramatic contrast. Popov is a classicist with the perfect technique, while Klim swims with an unorthodox straight arm recovery. Popov is quiet and stays out of the limelight; Klim is wildly extrovert.

While Klim may be the find of the championships, the find of the young British team is the 20-year-old Gavin Meadows. Swimming the 4x100 and 4x200 freestyle relay teams, he produced split-times which placed him firmly in the world's elite. It is largely thanks to Meadows' phenomenal performances, that Britain won its first medal - a bronze in the 4x200 freestyle. But his reaction is typical of his desire to succeed: "This is a really big step for me and I'm absolutely delighted. But in the 100- metre freestyle I was next to Popov and he kicked my ass. But to get Olympic gold that's who I've go to beat."

The man leading the British team yet again is Paul Palmer. Palmer had a tough time at the beginning of the week and a lack of speed placed him seventh in the final of the 200 metres freestyle, his gold-medal winning event from last summer's Europeans. But the bronze in the relay focused him on the task in his favoured 400 metres and he won Britain's second bronze medal in a thrilling battle over the final 50 metres with Italy's European champion Emiliano Brembilla.

"I am really delighted to have turned round my poor swims earlier in the week," Palmer said. "That was one of the toughest 400 metre fields ever assembled, so to swim a British record and win the bronze medal has given me a lot of confidence for the Commonwealth Games this summer."

But there was disappointment yesterday after neither the Olympic bronze medalist Graeme Smith nor Ian Wilson could make today's final of the 1500 metres. Smith was 33 seconds slower than his British record. "Something is horribly wrong. I'm looking at the Commonwealths now, which may be harder to win than here. In the Commonwealths there will be three Australians and here they are only allowed two."

With two medals and four British records, Britain has had a good championship. Deryk Snelling, Britain's performance director, sees this championship as one step on a long road to the Sydney Olympics in 2000. His biggest success has been to show British swimmers that they belong at this level of competition and to have them believe that they are a team. Team members will perform miracles not to let their team-mates down as the relay squads have showed here - three teams set new British records.

The dominant team has been the USA with 12 golds so far. Second are Australia with four and, to much relief, China has won just three. The Commonwealth Games will be a great test for Britain's youngsters as Snelling guides their promising development towards Sydney.