Klim, Popov in Dead Heat in Heat

Training partners Michael Klim and Alexander Popov couldn’t have been any more polite to each other.

Klim, the leading male swimmer of the world championships with three gold medals and two silvers, and Popov finished in a dead heat in their 50-meter qualifying race this morning.

Klim, who was born in Poland and learned to swim in India, caught Popov just before the wall as both were timed in 22.58 seconds. Popov was assigned the heat leader’s lane four for tonight’s final when a closer measurement--using thousandths of a second measurements--showed that the Russian swimmer was fractionally ahead.

Popov, who along with Klim is coached by Gennadi Touretski at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra, is seeking to become the first man to win the 50-100 double at consecutive world championships. He accomplished the feat at the Olympic Games, and he set up another double possibility with a victory in the 100 meters here.

Ricardo Busquets of Puerto Rico was third in 22.61.

The United States’ second-string relay team set Jenny Thompson up for a possible fifth gold medal by qualifying fastest in the 800-meter freestyle.

Thompson was left out of the heat as the U.S. clocked 8 minutes, 7.12 seconds. Germany qualified second fastest.

Dagmar Hase of Germany was the fastest qualifier for the 200-meter women’s backstroke final, clocking 2:13.29.

Lea Maurer of the United States, who won the 100-meter event, was second fastest with 2:13.61.

Meanwhile, the Chinese woes continued. He Cihong, the defending world champion in the event, did not qualify for the final, finishing 10th overall in 2:16.19, nine seconds off her gold medal time from Rome.

Marcel Wouda of the Netherlands qualified fastest for the 200-meter individual medley final, in 2:01.78. Tom Dolan of the United States, who won the 400-meter medley, was the second fastest overall in 2:01.94.