Watch a special feature on this year’s World Swimming Championships from Rome on Tuesday night’s OB Sport on RTÉ Two at 7.00pm.
Michael Phelps made it gold number five at the World Championships in Rome when he helped the USA to first place in the 4x100m medley relay, writes RTÉ Sport’s John Kenny.
Phelps claimed his fourth gold of the week on Saturday after an epic battle with Serbian Milorad Cavic in the 100m butterfly.
The USA won the final race of the championship in a world record time of three minutes 27.28 seconds, as Aaron Peirsol, Eric Shanteau, Phelps and David Waters smashed the previous best by 2.04.
The 43 world records set at the championships are unlikely to be broken in the near future as the sport’s governing body is set to ban 100% Polyurethane Body at the end of the year.
The decision to allow their use in Rome was a controversial one and the sight of world records falling in nearly every race devalued their merit.
Britain’s Liam Tancock won his country’s second gold, taking the men’s 50m backstroke in a world record 24.04.
Russian teenager Yuilia Efimova won the women’s 50m breaststroke in 30.09 while Germany’s Britta Steffan completed the women’s 50-100m freestyle double, winning Saturday’s 50m freestyle in 23.73.
Earlier in the day, the Irish men's 4x100 medley relay squad of Karl Burdis, Barry Murphy, Conor Leaney and Ryan Harrison obliterated the Irish record, swimming a world class heat-winning time of 3:39.87.
The time beat the old Irish record, set only three weeks ago at the World University Games in Belgrade, by almost six seconds, with Leaney replacing Steven McQuillan in the squad that raced in Serbia.
Ireland’s other competitors on the final day of competition were Grainne and Nuala Murphy in the women's 400m individual medley, but both were outside Michelle Smith long-standing Irish record.
For Ireland’s 13-strong squad, the week produced 25 national records.
