PARIS, Jan 18: World champion Ian Thorpe won a duel with Olympic titleholder Pieter van den Hoogenband in the 200 metres freestyle at the World Cup short-course swimming event here on Saturday.

In a tightly-fought race in which both swimmers exchanged the lead throughout, a late surge by the Australian over the final 50m gave him the title in a meet record of 1min 41.86sec ahead of the flying Dutchman, in 1:43.16. Czech swimmer Kvetoslav Svoboda was third in 1:44.96.

“This was probably one of my top performances,” said Thorpe, who set the world record of 1:41.10 over the distance in Berlin two years ago.

The Dutchman admitted that he was whipped this time but would be giving it another shot in Berlin next weekend.

“I was very tired at the end. When I touched the wall I was a little bit disappointed but when I saw the time I knew I had a good race,” he said.

Thorpe, the Olympic champion over 400m freestyle and triple world champion in 200m, 400m and 800m freestyle, lost the 200m Olympic title to the 22-year-old van den Hoogenband in Sydney, but reclaimed the world title the following year.

But his bid to break into short distance events suffered a setback here this weekend.

The 20-year-old placed just fifth behind van den Hoogenband in Friday’s 100m freestyle and failed to qualify for Saturday’s 50m final.

Thorpe admitted that one of the most difficult things during his first competition in Paris was having most of his team-mates as supporters after the Australian squad were hit by gastro-enteritis this week.

“It was harder yesterday. But I came here to race and I want to give it my best everytime I compete.”

Britain’s Mark Foster, meanwhile, came close to breaking the 50m freestyle world mark of 21.13sec he set here last year swimming 21.47sec on his way to victory ahead of American Jason Lezak (21.62) and France’s Julien Sicot (21.85).

In the women’s event, double Olympic champion Yana Klochkova added the 400m medley title to the 200m she won Friday.

The 20-year-old Ukrainian timed 4min 32.42sec to come in ahead of Japan’s Maiko Fujino (4:37.72) and New Zealand’s Helen Norfolk (4:38.40).

Zoe Baker and Alison Sheppard led a British 1-2 in the women’s 50m breaststroke Sarah Price won the 100m backstroke event.

Belarus’ Alena Popchenko won the women’s 100m freestyle in 53.99sec, ahead of China’s Yang Wei Xu in 54.43, with Slovak Martina Moravcova third in 54.45.

The World Cup now heads for the final two of seven legs in Stockholm from Jan 21-22 followed by Berlin from Jan 25-26.

Results of finals:

Men’s:

100m freestyle: 1. Pieter van den Hoogenband (Netherlands) 47.41 seconds; 2. Jason Lezak (US) 47.48; 3. Jose Meolans (Argentina) 47.65.

50m breaststroke: 1. Oleg Lisogor (Ukraine) 26.52; 2. Alessandro Terrin (Italy) 27.13; 3. Kosuke Kitajima (Japan) 27.56.

400m individual medley: 1. Dean Kent (New Zealand) 4:11.14; 2. Jiro Miki (Japan) 4:11.29; 3. Batiste Levaillant (France) 4:14.67.

100m backstroke: 1. Ou Yang Kun Peng (China) 51.93; 2. Atsushi Nishikori (Japan) 52.93; 3. Michael Gilliam (US) 53.18.

200m butterfly: 1. James Hickman (Britain) 1:53.03; 2. Tom Malchow (US) 1:54.80; 3. Helge Meeuw (Germany) 1:57.60.

400m freestyle: 1. Dragos Coman (Romania) 3:43.73; 2. Kvetoslav Svoboda (Czech Republic) 3:44.17; 3. Nicolas Rostoucher (France) 3:47.72.

200m breaststroke: 1. Kosuke Kitajima (Japan) 2:07.48; 2. Maxim Podoprigora (Austria) 2:07.97; 3. Ian Edmond (Britain) 2:10.94.

100m individual medley: 1. Oleg Lisogor (Ukraine) 53.68; 2. Bartosz Kizierowski (Poland) 54.85; 3. Antoine Galavtine (France) 55.28.

50m butterfly: 1. Mark Foster (Britain) 23.52; 2. Pavel Lagoun (Belarus) 23.68; 3. Joris Keizer (Netherlands) 23.71.

Women’s:

200m freestyle: 1. Xu Yan Wei (China) 1:55.94; 2. Alena Popchenko (Belarus) 1:56.33; 3. Solenne Figues (France) 1:57.12.

100m breaststroke: 1. Mirna Jukic (Austria) 1:07.05; 2. Anne Sophie Le Paranthoen (France) 1:08.46; 3. Zoe Baker (Britain) 1:08.77.

100m butterfly: 1. Martina Moravcova (Slovakia) 57.37; 2. Xu Yan Wei (China) 58.70; 3. Yurie Yano (Japan) 59.41.

50m backstroke: 1. Cheng Jia Ru (China) 27.89; 2. Ilona Hlavackova (Czech Republic) 27.91; 3. Mai Nakamura (Japan) 27.92.

200m individual medley: 1. Yana Klochkova (Ukraine) 2:08.79; 2. Hanna Shcherba (Belarus) 2:10.64; 3. Gabrielle Rose (US) 2:12.73.

50m freestyle: 1. Alison Sheppard (Britain) 24.23; 2. Therese Alshammar (Sweden) 24.41; 3. Zhou Xiao Wei (China) 25.21.

800m freestyle: 1. Chantal Strasser (Switzerland) 8:29.78; 2. Laura Blomme (France) 8:32.47; 3. Laure Manaudou (France) 8:33.54.

200m backstroke: 1. Sarah Price (Britain) 2:05.32; 2. Stephanie Proud (Britain) 2:08.19; 3. Aya Terakawa (Japan) 2:08.39.—AFP/Reuters