Unheralded Pilczuk Upstages Popov In 50

All around Alexander Popov, the emotionless king of the pool, others were losing their grip.

Popov, surprisingly, also lost his cool and along with it his hopes of another sprint double. The gold medal was torn away by American longshot Bill Pilczuk.

“I knew I lost the race from the blocks,” said Popov, aiming for his fourth straight 50- and 100-meter double at major meets dating back to the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

“I was thinking about something else - I can’t remember what.”

Popov, the usually unflappable Russian, wasn’t the only one having trouble thinking straight at the World Swimnming Championships Saturday.

Pilczuk looked at the scoreboard after beating Popov to the wall in 22.29 seconds in the 50 and wondered what might be wrong with it.

“I looked to see if it was a typo - the one was a seven,” Pilczuk said.

“That has happened to me before.”

When he realized the No. 1 was his to keep, “I didn’t know what to think - my reaction was flabbergasted,” he said.

If Popov had lost his way at the start, he was direct at the end.

“The winner takes it all and Bill was much better,” said Popov, second in 22.43.

“He deserves the medal … I have enough of the (gold) medals so I might as well start collecting the silver.”

Jenny Thompson of the United States was chasing a fifth gold medal in the relay but was unable to make up ground on Kerstin Kieglass. The Germans finished in 8:01.46, the U.S. was second in 8:02.88.

Despite Thompson’s rare night without a gold, the U.S. continued to dominate. Pilczuk and Brooke Bennett, winner of the women’s 800-meter freestyle in 8:28.71, raised the U.S. gold total to 11.

American Tom Dolan, winner of the 400-meter medley, was unable to beat his pain in the 200 IM.

Dolan suffered his fourth asthma attack during a race in the past eight months and finished last.