FUKUOKA, Japan — Anthony Ervin upstaged the 100-meter duel between Ian Thorpe and Pieter van den Hoogenband, giving the United States an unexpected gold medal Friday at swimming's world championships.
Ervin won by 0.1 seconds to set a world championship record. He had to wait several moments for the scoreboard to confirm his freestyle victory. At the finish, the times were shown only for the other seven lanes, and teammates stood chanting, "USA, USA."
"I knew my only chance to getting a medal was to just go out and swim like crazy," he said.
Ervin finished in 48.33 seconds, breaking the championships record of 48.57 set by Olympic champion van den Hoogenband in the semifinals.
Thorpe finished fourth, 0.48 behind the winner. Van den Hoogenband of the Netherlands took the silver in 48.43, and 100-meter butterfly winner Lars Frolander of Sweden won the bronze in 48.79, a touch ahead of Thorpe.
Van den Hoogenband at first thought he'd won.
"I am not in best shape now," he said.
Australia bounced back with two world records, including one in the 800-meter freestyle relay that gave Thorpe his fifth gold medal of the meet. The Australians beat their own world mark of 7 minutes, 7.05 seconds by winning in 7:04.66. Italy was a distant second, and the United States struggled to win a bronze.
The 100-meter duel came on a day when swimming authorities acknowledged problems with the timing system.
"The problems are unfortunate — it's hard to believe in this day and age that we would have such problems," FINA chief executive Cornel Marculescu said.
That probably will come too late for the U.S. women's 800-meter relay team. It was disqualified in Wednesday's final when officials ruled one American left the block before the previous swimmer hit the electronic pad at the end of the pool.
The problems continued Friday when Germany initially protested an Australian changeover in the men's 800-meter freestyle relay. The protest later was withdrawn.
Australia's Geoff Huegill broke his own world record by 0.16 in men's 50-meter butterfly semifinals, winning his heat in 23.44 seconds.
Overall, however, it was the Americans' night, with three gold medals to two for Australia and one for China.