India's dominance continued in the aquatic events of the 11th South Asian Games (SAG) as India bagged four gold and five silver medals on the second day at the National Swimming Complex in Mirpur on Saturday.

Virdhaval Khade won two gold medals for India with breaking two meet records. Khade bagged gold medals in the 50 m butterfly and 50 m freestyle events.

Melbourne, Nov 18 : Australia’s swimming sensation Stephanie Rice has taken control of her business affairs at just 21 and will manage the endorsements and personally negotiate all deals with the help of a friend.

In a move which has surprised many, Rice walked away from her management company, International Quarterback three weeks ago after deciding its industry-standard 20 per cent commission was too much, The Herald Sun reports.

Jinan, China - China's Liu Zige knocked over one and a half seconds off Jessica Schipper's 200-metre butterfly world record Wednesday with an astonishing swim at the national swimming championships in Jinan.

Liu recorded a time of 2 minutes 1.81 seconds for the distance, beating by 1.6 seconds the previous best time of 2:03.41 minutes set by Australian Schipper's on July 30 of this year at the world championships in Rome.(dpa)

Melbourne, Oct 15 : It looks like Perth''s swimming sensation Eamon Sullivan resorted to cooking to get over his spilt from Stephanie Rice.

The two parted ways on the eve of last year''s Beijing Olympics.

After the split, Rice has been associated with swimming bad boy Nick D''Arcy, Sydney rugby league star David `Wolfman' Williams, and long-time training partner Brendan Capell.

On the other hand, Sullivan has kept a low profile in the romance stakes since the split. Instead, he has spent his spare time in the kitchen perfecting his own pasta.

Sydney  - Five-time Olympic gold medalist Ian Thorpe has dropped his defamation case against French sports newspaper L'Equipe over claims the former Australian swimming star used performance-enhancing drugs.

Lawyer Tony O'Reilly said in a statement Monday that neither L'Equipe nor its journalist, Damien Ressiot, had turned up to court to defend the action.

"In these circumstances Ian has decided not to pursue the proceedings as he sees little point in obtaining a verdict in the absence of Mr Ressiot and the publisher of L'Equipe," the statement said.

The allegations were made in 2007, a year after Thorpe retired.

Melbourne, Sep 19 : Australian swimming beauty Stephanie Rice is all set to celebrate her 21st birthday today—almost two months after her actual birthday—in a grand bash.

The Olympic star had to postpone festivities because of the world champ meet in Rome in July.

But, today, she will start her birthday celebrations at the Marriot Hotel, and roam across town with her gang in a giant luxury Hummer.

The party will swing over to Portside at Hamilton, where she will be cutting her birthday cake, reports the Courier Mail.

Los Angeles  - Swimsuit company Sppedo late Wednesday announced that they had extended their contract with American swimming superstar Michael Phelps until 2013.

In a statement released by the company, Speedo said they would in future pay 10,000 dollars to the Michael Phelps Foundation for every world record that Phelps swims, with the 24-year-old 14-time Olympic champion adding the same amount.

Phelps, who has been under contract to Speedo since 2001, started the foundation last year with the one million dollars he was given by Speedo after winning a record-breaking eight gold medals at the Beijing Olympics.

The aim of the Foundation it to make swimming more popular.

Lausanne, Switzerland - Swimming's controlling body FINA on Wednesday announced that all doping tests undertaken at the recent swimming world championship had returned negative.

In a statement released in Lausanne FINA said that they had taken 252 tests from swimmers, who broke an astonishing 43 world records at the meet, 30 from the open water swimming, 33 from diving, 11 from synchronized swimming and 65 from water polo.

Sydney  - Olympic swimming champion Libby Trickett is taking an extended break from the sport and is considering retiring, she said Wednesday in a statement issued by her management company.

In the statement quoted in Australian media, the 24-year-old, who has three Olympic gold medals as well as nine world championship gold medals to her name, said that retirement was something she was contemplating.

"I am having a break at the moment and retirement is on my mind, but it is not something that I have confirmed," she said.

Belgrade - Some 20,000 people gathered Monday in downtown Belgrade to welcome Serbian gold-medal winners from the world championship in Rome - swimmers Milorad Cavic and Nadja Higl and the national water polo team.

A roaring crowd also welcomed the Serbian junior basketball team, which won a gold medal at the European Championship Sunday in France.

Fans waved flags and banners, lit flares and sang and chanted "champions" as the golden boys and girl appeared on the balcony of Belgrade City Hall.

Belgrade - Serbian sports officials were on Sunday planning a celebration for the victorious Serbian water polo team that won world championship gold on Saturday night in Rome.

Serbia has also won several other medals at the world championships and the team is expected back in the country on Monday and officials are hoping to host a welcome-home party.

Welcome-home parties have almost become a tradition in Serbia after successful basketball and volleyball teams and tennis players brought a respite from the 1990s wars and sanctions.

Rome - American Scott Tyler Clary on Sunday led the field into the final of the men's 400m individual medley in a time of 4:10.04 at the world swimming championships in Rome.

Hungarian Laszlo Cseh, who won silver in the 200m individual medley earlier in the week, finished .29 seconds off the pace, ahead of his compatriot Gergo Kis, who finished with a time of 4:10.99.

American Ryan Lochte, who won the 200m individual medley, had the fourth-fastest time and said that he did not really like racing the IM early in the morning.

Rome - Germany came within 14 hundredth of a second to breaking the US-held world record in the men's 4x100m individual medley relay on Sunday when they led the field into Sunday night's world championship final.

The German team of Helge Meeuw, Hendrik Feldwehr, Bejamin Starke and Paul Biedermann finished in a time of 3.29.48 taking more than two seconds off the old championship record, which was also held by the US.

Australia, who swam in the same heat as Germany, finished with a time of 3:29.84.

Rome - When Serbian 50m butterfly winner Milorad Cavic tried to rattle Michael Phelps' cage ahead of Saturday evening's 100m butterfly final, the American superstar simply said he would let his swimming do the talking.

And Phelps was loud and clear.

Lying only fourth at the first turn with 23.36, Phelps was 0.67 seconds behind Cavic, but in the end he was 0.13 seconds ahead, having won in world record time of 49.82.

Seconds after touching for his victory, Phelps exploded in a way in which he had never done so before.

Indian swimmer Sandeep Sejwal has set new National record at the 2009 FINA World Championships in Rome on Thursday. He clocked 2 min and 13.22 sec in the 200m breaststroke event to finish at the 32nd spot.

The Delhi swimmer participated in the 50m, 100m and 200m breaststroke events and he surpassed his previous best in all events. He has made his way in to the FINA Top
100 World Rankings in the 50m and 100m breaststroke categories after this impressive performance.

Rome - Press conferences with medal winners at the world swimming championships in Rome are generally pretty serious affairs.

Winners analyse their races and give a lot of answers about technique to questions about technique and very seldom do the questions go into the personal.

On Friday the US 4x200m freestyle relay team were very different.

From the time gold medallists Michael Phelps, Ricky Berens, David Walters and Ryan Lochte entered the room, you could feel that they were much more than simply four good swimmers put together on a team to represent their country.

Rome - Six world records in the evening session at the world championships in the Foro Italico in Rome on Friday took the total for the meet to 35.

At the last world championships in Melbourne in 2007, 15 world records were broken in total and with two days of competition remaining, this number has already been more than doubled.

Rome - Germany's Britta Steffen on Friday broke the world record for the women's 100m freestyle for the second time in five days.

The 25-year-old won the gold medal at the world championships in a time of 55.07, beating the old best mark of 52.22, which she established on Sunday as the opening swimmer of the German women's 4x100m freestyle relay swimmer.

Briton's Fran Halsall took the silver medal with a time of 55.87, while Libby Trickett of Australia won the bronze medal with a time of 55.93.(dpa)

Rome  - Serbian Milorad Cavic topped the heats in the men's 50-metre butterfly at the world championships in the Foro Italico on Friday, while there was disappointment for 42-year-old Dara Torres as she was eliminated from the women's 50m butterfly.

Cavic, who maintains that he beat superstar Michael Phelps at the Beijing Olympics, but that the timing was faulty to give the American victory, swam a 50.56, beating American Tler McGill into second place by 0.34.

Rome - When fans in the Foro Italico in Rome started clapping to the Brazilian national anthem on Friday evening, Cesar Cielo Filho could no longer hold back his tears.

A short while earlier, Cielo Filho, 22, had won the men's 100m freestyle at the world championship in a new world record time of 46.91 seconds, beating Australian Eamon Sullivan's old mark by 0.14 seconds.