American Hansen wins 100m breaststroke final

MELBOURNE (Reuters) - American Brendan Hansen beat his Japanese rival Kosuke Kitajima in a sprint finish to win the men's 100 meters breaststroke final at the world championships on Monday.

Hansen just got his hands on the wall first to win the gold in 59.80 seconds, 0.67 outside his own world record of 59.13.

Kitajima finished second in 59.96 to take the silver medal and Australia's Brenton Rickard was third in 1:00.58

The rivalry between Hansen and Kitajima has dominated men's breaststroke over the past five years.

Kitajima won the 100-200 double at the 2003 world championships and 2004 Athens Olympics but Hansen won both events at the 2005 world championships and broke Kitajima's world records for both distances.