Foster suffers seventh hell in Japan

Mark Foster's dream of becoming the first Briton to win World Championship gold for 26 years ended in defeat today.

The 31-year-old could only finish equal seventh in the 50 metres freestyle final in Fukuoka, Japan.

America's Olympic champion Anthony Ervin won in 22.09 seconds from Holland's Olympic 100m and 200m champion Pieter van den Hoogenband (22.16secs), with South African Roland Schoeman third (22.18secs).

Foster clocked 22.44secs - 0.31secs down on his own national record - after fading in the final 25m.

The University of Bath swimmer had recorded the third best time of the heats behind Ervin and van den Hoogenband.

He said: "I am gutted because I am in the best shape of my life and I have still got the butterfly at the end of the week to go for. I was on a high after yesterday but I did not get my first breath and as I tried to get a second I swallowed water and struggled after that."

Reading's Rebecca Cooke went one better and finished sixth in the 800m freestyle final.

Australia's Petria Thomas continued her country's success as she triumphed in the 200m butterfly. And her team-mate Matt Welsh stormed to victory in the 100m backstroke from lane one.

But Australia's golden run was stopped in the women's 100m breaststroke as China's Xuejuan Luo triumphed in 1:07.18. Australian Liesel Jones was second in 1:07.96 with Hungary's Agnes Kovacs third in 1:08.50.