Jackson claims another medal as Adlington misses out

Chris O'Keefe

Jo Jackson claimed her third medal of the World Swimming Championships in Rome with a silver in the 800m, but double Olympic Champion Rebecca Adlington could only finish fourth in a tight race.

Both British swimmers were up with the early pace along with Lotte Friis of Denmark, Camelia Potec of Romania and 1500m champion Alessia Filippi from Italy all bunch together through the first half of the race. Then Friis looked to break the field with a surge between 400 and 600 metres and left the other contenders too much to do.

After Filippi made her move, reaching the final turn only a fraction behind Friis, Jackson came through with a sprint finish to take her second individual silver ahead of Filippi and a visibly disappointed Adlington.

Friis in truth has stolen the race which was slower than Adlington's Beijing World Record victory but made her move at exactly the right time. For Jackson, it was an incredible effort considering her heavy schedule during the meeting. Adlington started her training programme later in the year and was playing catch up to Jackson for much of the year, but her chances of success in future years shouldn't be dented by the current disappointment.

Elsewhere at the Championships, Michael Phelps won his grudge rematch with Milorad Cavic in the 100m Butterfly. Phelps pipped Cavic by the narrowest of margins in Beijing but Cavic destroyed Phelps's World Record in the Semi-Final. Cavic also took out the final at a blinding pace, being almost a body length ahead of his rival at the turn. However, Phelps powered past Cavic in the past 25 metres to record 49.82 to Cavic's 49.95, the first two swimmers under 50 seconds in the event.

Liam Tancock smashed the 50m backstroke World Record to qualify fastest for tomorrows final. Tancock clocked 24.08, nearly a quarter of a second inside the old record. Fran Halsall followed up her success in Friday's 100m Freestyle Final by qualifying for the 50m Freestyle Final tomorrow.

David Davies was third fastest in his heat ahead of the final of the 1500m Freestyle and is eyeing his own British Record. However, Richard Charlesworth went out in the same heat and could only register the 22nd fastest time overall.