Michael Phelps and the U.S. 400-meter medley relay team closed the fastest meet in swimming history with an appropriate finish Sunday night - the 43rd world record.
Phelps earned his fifth gold medal of a world championships that showed he's still got plenty of motivation, even after winning a record eight times at the Beijing Olympics.
Swimming the butterfly leg, Phelps helped the U.S. pull away from Germany and Australia to win in 3 minutes, 27.28 seconds. That easily broke the mark of 3:29.34 set by the Americans at last summer's Olympics.
"That relay brings out the best in me," Phelps said. "That's sort of what competing does. It doesn't matter how much energy I have, it's all going to go into every race. That's one of the things that I enjoy most - stepping out onto the blocks no matter what kind of shape I'm in."
Phelps took six months off after his Beijing triumph, received a three-month suspension from competition after the infamous marijuana pipe photo came out - and he was still named the most outstanding male swimmer of the championships. Italy's Federica Pellegrini received the female award.
Eric Shanteau, who overcame testicular cancer to swim his best times, picked up the first major gold medal of his career on the breaststroke leg of the relay, to go along with a silver and bronze in Rome. The other members of the winning team were backstroker Aaron Peirsol and David Walters, swimming the freestyle anchor.
Also Sunday, Ryan Lochte won his fourth gold of the championships and Germany's Britta Steffen matched her 50-100 freestyle sweep in Beijing.
No such glory for 42-year-old Dara Torres. The senior citizen of the pool finished last in her only individual final, the 50 free, at the Foro Italico.
But she's not retiring, saying she plans to return to the pool in December.
She hasn't ruled out anything, not even trying to swim in the next Olympics at 45.
Taking advantage of Phelps' absence, Lochte added the 400 individual medley title to his medal haul at the championships. Lochte also won the 200 IM along with two relay golds and bronze in the 200 backstroke.
Lochte was far off Phelps' world record in the 400 IM, touching first in 4:07.01. Phelps won gold at Beijing in 4:03.84, but decided to scale back his program heading into what will be his final Olympics.
The Americans still went 1-2 without Phelps. Tyler Clary came on strong in the freestyle to beat Hungary's Laszlo Cseh, taking silver in 4:07.31.
Youth movement: In the women's 50 breaststroke, Kasey Carlson - who will be a senior at Las Lomas High in Walnut Creek this fall - finished sixth in 30.65. Yuliya Efimova of Russia won in 30.09.
Cavic's challenge: With no major international meet scheduled next year, Milorad Cavic proposed a duel in the pool with Michael Phelps in 2010.
Otherwise, Phelps and Cavic might not meet in an Olympic-sized pool until the 2011 worlds in Shanghai.
At last year's Beijing Olympics, Cal alumnus Cavic came closer to beating Phelps than anyone else. The American-born Serb lost by a hundredth of a second, a finish so close that the Serbian team filed a protest and swimming's governing body had to review the tape down to the 10-thousandth of a second.
The rematch at the Foro Italico was just as dramatic, with both swimmers trading jabs in the press beforehand and Phelps winning Saturday with a supposedly inferior swimsuit.
"We go to lots of meets," said Phelps' coach, Bob Bowman. "They can come to any of the meets we go to."
U.S. fading: The United States received an award as the top-performing country at the world swimming championships, despite its worst showing at these every-other-year championships since 1994, also in Rome. The American showing - 10 golds, six silvers, six bronzes - was its lowest total since that team from 15 years ago managed only 21 medals overall.
'Flying Fish' dies: Swimming's governing body says FINA vice president Hironoshin Furuhashi, who was in Rome for the world championships, died in his sleep Sunday. He was 80. Furuhashi was one of Japan's first great swimmers, setting several world records in 1949.
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