Don’t hurry back, Thorpey

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GRANT Hackett and the all-conquering women have led Australia to its greatest medal haul at the world championships.

Australia won three gold medals on the final day of competition to finish with 22 medals — 13 gold, five silver and four bronze.

The haul surpassed Australia’s previous best of 13 gold, three silver and three bronze at the 2001 world championships in Fukuoka, Japan.

But Australia’s performance was not enough to beat the United States, which topped the medal tally with 15 gold medals.

Team captain Hackett, who won three golds, said the result was a great achievement for Australia without Ian Thorpe.

“It’s great for the team to step out of the shadow of someone like Ian and still be able to come here and prove that it’s not a one-man team,” Hackett said.

“Ian always has great results and we certainly need him and want him back, but it proves that it’s just not him that’s producing great results.

“We thought this could be a bit of a low time for us, but we’ve turned that around and had great results.”

But the story of the championships for Australia was the same as last year’s Olympics: the dominance of the women and, save for Hackett, the lacklustre performances of the men.

Of Australia’s 13 gold medals in Montreal, 10 were won by women.

Aside from Hackett’s hardware, the only other medals to come from the men were Matt Welsh’s silver in the 50m backstroke and bronze in the 4 x 100m and 4 x 200m freestyle relays.

But in a more alarming indication of the health of the men’s team, apart from Hackett, Nic Sprenger (200m freestyle) and Jim Piper (200m breaststroke) were the only swimmers to qualify for finals in Olympic events.

Australian head coach Alan Thompson was pleased with the overall result, but admitted to concerns about the state of the men’s team.

“You can be happy, but certainly not satisfied in the results. That’s the message I have for the team,” Thompson said.

“There has been some great results, but there are still some areas that we need to improve on.

“The performance of the men’s team is not so great, notwithstanding the excellent performances of Grant Hackett.

“We’ve got some things that we need to do to really bolster that men’s team.”

Thompson lauded the performances of the women, highlighted by Leisel Jones’ breakthrough wins in the 100m and 200m breaststroke and the arrival of Jessicah Schipper as a world champion butterflyer.

He singled out the progress of 18-year-old Schipper, who won gold in the 100m butterfly and silver in the 200m butterfly, swimming under the world record.

“She has made some massive gains. Her performances were just phenomenal,” Thompson said.

The Australian team will aim to cap off its world championship success at the Duel in the Pool against the US in Irvine, California, on Wednesday.