Australian swimmer Eamon Sullivan has set up a mouthwatering showdown with Michael Phelps at next year's World Championships after labelling the American's world record haul of eight gold medals in Beijing a "lucky" achievement.
On the back of talk that Phelps may look to challenge French Olympic Champion Alain Bernard and world record holder Sullivan in the 100m freestyle at next year's World Championships in Rome, Sullivan said mistakes by other people had allowed Phelps to beat Mark Spitz's haul of seven gold medals at the one Olympics.
Phelps came from behind to win the 100m butterfly final by 0.01 of a second over Serbia's Milorad Cavic and also had to rely on a blistering final leg swim by American teammate Jason Lezak to claim gold in the 4 x 100m freestyle final.
"I think there was an element of luck," said Sullivan, who failed to win gold in Beijing.
"One hundred flys ... always comes down to finishes, and some would say Cavic's finish was -- it was at that point 50-50 whether you take another stroke or you take a glide.
"You see Phelpsy took another stroke, he (Cavic) took a glide and obviously (Phelps') arms are coming over at a faster pace.
"He (Phelps) made the right decision and I think the other guy made the wrong decision.
"But if he (Phelps) had made the other decision he might not have been as lucky and he might have come away with a second and he would have come away with equalling (Spitz's record).
"I'm not saying he didn't deserve it, I'm saying he did everything he could do to win those golds and he came away with it, but at the same time there were little mistakes by other people that allowed him to do that."
