By Sportswriter Ma Xiangfei

     ATHENS, Aug. 15 (Xinhuanet) -- Double world champion Kosuke Kitajima of Japan ruined Brendan Hansen's 23rd birthday.

    In a thrilling match-up between current and former world recordholders of the men's 100m breaststroke, Kitajima proved to be the stronger one when he won in one minute 0.08 second while 100m and 200m world record hold Hansen had to settle for the silver 0.2 second off the pace.

    "It feels great. It feels so damn great," said an excited Kitajima, who followed his formerly planned race strategy, going out in 28.26 and come back in 31.82.

    "When I finished, I felt happier than I ever have been," said the 22-year-old student at Tokyo's Nippon College of Physical Education.

    Kitajima's old world records in the 100m and 200m breaststroke world records were set at the world championships in Barcelona in July last year.

    But Hansen, who turned 23 on Sunday, beat the 100m mark by 0.48seconds with a time of 59.30 and the 200m record by 0.38 with 2:09.04 in Long Beach, California in July.

    "I have been stung as my world records were broken by Hansen atthe U.S. Olympic trials," Kitajima once said in a newspaper column.

    Hansen qualified for his first Olympic team after heartbreakingthird-place finishes in both breaststrokes at the US trials in 2000.

    So the University of Texas student would rather look at the brighter side of his loss as he will continue their rivalry on Tuesday in the 200m competition.

    "This is my first Olympic and I am happy with it," said Hansen,who became just the third man, after Kitajima and Russian Roman Sloudnov, to break one minute barrier in the 100m breaststroke event in the U.S. trials.

    "I knew Kitajima would be tough so I was not surprised, but I remember him shouting in my ears, so it is important to warm down and keep that in my head to fire me up," he said. Enditem