Van den Hoogenband does it again

Pieter van den Hoogenband won the men's 100 metres freestyle at the Athens Olympics yesterday to become just the third man to win swimming's premier race on two occasions.

The flying Dutchman retained the title he won in Sydney in a slick 48.17 seconds but just failed to beat the world record he set in Sydney four years ago although two other records fell.

The United States broke the oldest world record in swimming to win the women's 4x200 freestyle relay and claim their sixth gold medal in the pool.

Australia's Jodie Henry smashed the women's 100 freestyle world record in the semi-finals to confirm her place as the favourite for Thursday's final.

Japan's Kosuke Kitajima captured his second gold by easily winning the 200 breaststroke four days after he took the 100 while Otylia Jedrzejczak won the women's 200 butterfly to become Poland's first Olympic swimming champion.

Van den Hoogenband joined Johnny Weissmuller and Alexander Popov as the only men to successfully defend the 100 freestyle title with a perfectly timed swim, hitting the front in the final two strokes.

South African Roland Schoeman finished second in 48.23 to add a silver to the relay gold he won on the weekend after turning for home well in front.

"I'm not sure when I caught him, I was in a kind of trance, in a flow, doing my job and not thinking," said van den Hoogenband. "I'm so happy, really. I was touching the wall and the camera was zooming in and I'd won. It's great."

Ian Thorpe finished third in 48.56, flashing home from sixth at the halfway mark after winning the 200-400 freestyle double earlier in the meet.

The US quartet of Natalie Coughlin, Carly Vollmer, Dana Vollmer and Kaitlin Sandeno wiped the last East German record from the books with a combined time of seven minutes 53.42 seconds.

The old mark of 7:55.47 was set exactly 17 years ago to the day but was doomed from the moment Coughlin, who won the 100 backstroke gold, raced through the lead-off almost three seconds under world record pace. China finished second and Germany third.

Henry, who anchored Australia to gold in the 4x100 relay on Saturday, sliced 0.14 seconds off the previous mark of 53.66 set by her compatriot Libby Lenton at the Australian championships earlier this year to qualify more than half a second ahead of defending champion Inge de Bruijn.

Jedrzejczak came through strongly to score a close victory over Petria Thomas in the 200 butterfly final after the Australian beat her for the 100 on Sunday.

The Pole clocked 2:06.05, outside her own 2:05.78 world mark set at the European championships in Berlin in August 2002. Thomas took the silver in 2:06.36 and Yuko Nakanishi of Japan won bronze in 2:08.04.

Japan's Kitajima, angered at American accusations he had used an illegal dolphin kick during his 100 victory on the weekend, led all the way to win the 200 breaststroke gold in 2:09.44.