While Canada may not have been among the most successful teams at the world aquatic championships in Melbourne, it certainly showed promise on the road to the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.

Canada finished 10th in the medal standings with one gold, three silver and one bronze, but it's not the medal count that matters, some say, it's the drive the team showed.

Michael Phelps of the U.S. races on his way to setting a new world record in the men's 400-metre individual medley final in Melbourne on Sunday.
(Mark Baker/Associated Press)

After winning five medals in swimming, four in diving and one in women's water polo at the 2005 championships in Montreal, Canada appeared to be on the rise in aquatics.

But after numerous changes, several new faces were representing Canada at this year's championship, putting the program in a state of flux. Those close to the team, such as swimming coach Pierre Lafontaine, pointed to the team's character and drive as building blocks for the future.

Canadian athletes like swimmer Rick Say of Victoria agreed.

"This may not be the best worlds we had in terms of [medal] performances, but everybody is on the right track and headed in the right direction going towards the Olympics," said Say, who helped Canada to its bronze in the freestyle relay.

The majority of the country's medals were captured by swimmer Brent Hayden of Mission, B.C., (a gold individually and relay bronze) and diver Alexandre Despatie of Laval, Que., (two silver, one with teammate Arturo Miranda).

Diver Blythe Hartley of North Vancouver won the other silver.

The U.S. led the championships with 40 medals (21 gold, 14 silver, five bronze) followed by Australia with 26 (nine gold, seven silver, 10 bronze) and Russia with 24 (11 gold, six silver and seven bronze).

Phelps continues dominance, ties record

Michael Phelps wrapped up the World Aquatic Championships in style on Sunday by winning his seventh gold medal of the event to tie a record set by Mark Spitz, and set a fifth world record in the process.

Phelps beat his existing world record in the 400-metre individual medley by 2.04 seconds to become the most successful swimmer ever at the world championships.

Fellow American Ryan Lochte gave Phelps a good duel in the event and eventually took the lead with his specialty, the backstroke, at the 200 metre mark.

But Phelps roared back with the breast stroke portion of the medley and dipped back under world record pace. The Baltimore native built his lead with the freestyle portion of the event and won the gold by an astounding 3.52 seconds ahead of Lochte.

"This is probably one of the best meets I've ever had," said Phelps. "I'm definitely happy with how it turned out."

While Phelps was pleased with his results in Melbourne, Spitz's achievement came during the Summer Olympics in 1972 — a stage where Phelps hopes to perform as well or better at next year's Beijing Games.

"This is definitely the best-case scenario for what we had in mind leading into the [U.S.] trials and Olympics next year," he said.

Phelps wanted a chance to earn an eighth gold medal to beat Spitz's record, but his team was surprisingly disqualified from the 400-metre medley relay preliminaries on Sunday morning.

U.S. teammate Ian Crocker, who narrowly lost to Phelps in the 100 fly event, dove in too early during an exchange, forcing the disqualification.

Phelps was gracious about the incident, which denied his chance at a record.

"Everything can't go perfect," he said. "It's all about how you adapt from those things and learn from experiences, learn from mistakes.
 
"When Team USA comes into a swim meet, we come as a team and we exit as a team." 

Hoff sets world record

Phelps wasn't the only American to set a world record in the event's final day, as 18-year-old Katie Hoff won the women's 400 individual medley with a record-setting time of 4:32.89.

"It's my first one," said Hoff, who was part of a world record in the 800 freestyle relay. "I'm still in disbelief."

Hoff cruised to the record 7.25 seconds ahead of Yana Martynova of Russia. Stephanie Rice of Australia settled for bronze.

Much like Phelps, it was the breaststroke portion of the medley where Hoff began to pull away and open up a huge lead.

Hoff's record was one of 12 set by the American team at this year's event.

With files from the Associated Press