Roland bombs in Shanghai

Former two-time gold medallist Roland Schoeman crashed out in the semifinals of the 50m butterfly at the world swimming championships in Shanghai, but countryman Cameron van der Burgh carried the South African flag into today's 100m breaststroke final.

Schoeman - the first man to break the 23-second barrier in the one-lap fly race in 2005, before the controversial super-suits were permitted in the pool - missed out on a spot in the final by just six-hundredths of a second, clocking 23.48sec to tie with Poland's Konrad Czerniak.

Cesar Cielo, the controversial Brazilian, who was allowed to compete in Shanghai despite failing a dope test recently, was the fastest in 23.19, followed by Australian veteran Geoff Huegill in 23.26, Florent Manaudou of France (23.32) and Kenya's Jason Dunford (23.34).

Schoeman, winner of this event at the 2005 and 2007 editions of the world championships, was the first South African to win a medal at a long-course (50m) world championships when he claimed bronze in the 50m freestyle in Japan in 2001.

Van der Burgh, the bronze medallist at the previous championships two years ago, won his semifinal in 1min 00.07sec, but his time was only the fifth-quickest of the evening, with Norwegian Alexander Oen, reduced to tears in the wake of the mass killing in his home country, setting the pace at 59.37.

Kirsty Coventry, Zimbabwe's multi-medallist from the 2004 and 2008 Olympics, failed to qualify for the women's 200m individual medley final.

She posted 2:12.21, only the ninth-best time in the semifinals which were dominated by Stephanie Rice, the girlfriend of Wallaby flyhalf Quade Cooper, in 2:09.65.

Australia yesterday caused the first major upset when they beat the heavily favoured French and US teams to win the men's 4x100m freestyle relay. The Australians won in 3:11, from France and the US, who were led off by Michael Phelps.

The Netherlands won the women's relay, with Femke Heemskerk producing a super anchor leg to overhaul the US for a time of 3:33.96.

Olympic champion Park Tae-Hwan won his 400m freestyle duel with China's Sun Yang by a length, touching in 3:42.04.