Rock: 'A fantastic experience'

The Duel in the Pool has been convincingly won by the American team after two days of world-class swimming.

With races taking place in Manchester, the European team, made up of swimmers from England, Italy and Germany, had high hopes of being able to reap the full benefit of home advantage. In the end however, in transpired that the home crowd counted for little against a team who could swim faster in more of the races.

Although the US score of 185 points was more than double that of Europe’s 78, there were a some positives for the hosts from the two days. These included Dame Rebecca Adlington winning her 800m freestyle by seven seconds and Lancashire local Michael Rock beating The Great Michael Phelps™ in the 200m butterfly.

Phelps, swimming in the UK for the first time, did not seem too perturbed by finishing stuck between Rock and a third place. He will take comfort from the fact that he has now built up repeated race experience wearing 2010 compliant attire and finished in style, swimming the final leg of the final event as the US men’s 4x100m freestyle team won in a new world record time, one of eight new world records set.

The competition itself proved highly popular, with sell-out crowds on both days and live coverage on the BBC. Jessica Hardy said she was ‘having a blast’ while the victorious Rock added it was ‘a fantastic experience’.

Rice: Perfectly fine

Triple Olympic swimming champion Stephanie Rice has insisted she will be a single woman this Christmas.

The 21 year-old Australian broke up with her partner of two years, freestyler Eamon Sullivan, just before the Beijing Olympics. She has since been romantically linked to fellow swimmers Michael Phelps, Brendan Capell and Nick D’Arcy, along with questionably nicknamed rugby league star David ‘Wolfman’ Williams, though not all at the same time.

Clarifying the situation, Rice, often described as ‘Australia’s sexiest swimmer’, denied there were four boyfriends in her life, telling a newspaper ‘Believe me, one would be just perfect’.

The medley specialist also spoke recently about her new training regime and how she had never been positive about competing in a bodysuit. However, this proved to be substantially less interesting than discussions about her private life.

‘I have definitely noticed that I have picked up a lot quicker than I did after the Olympics last year.’ she said, but it is unclear on which subject she was commenting.

Mourning: Woods

Top swimmers are reported to be desperately searching for examples of sexual infidelity in an attempt to boost their public profile and earning potential.

The recent trend has developed in response to blanket media coverage of golfer Tiger Woods, following a car accident near his home and continued revelations about his private life.

The 33 year-old’s celebrity has allowed him to amass a fortune estimated at over $1 billion. Golf, often described as ‘a good walk spoiled’, has also benefited enormously from Woods’ high profile. Swimmers and their coaches are now said to be hoping to replicate the American’s tactics for both the good of themselves and their sport.

An unnamed swimmer, who desperately tried to avoid remaining anonymous, said ‘I’m happily married and have never considered sleeping with television presenters, hostesses in bars, high class prostitutes or porn stars, but if it means I’ll get days of front page headlines and £68 million a year in sponsorship then it’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make.’