SHANGHAI, April 5 (Xinhua) -- Montreal worlds' double gold winner Roland Schoeman from South Africa withdrew from the 8th FINA World Swimming Championship in Shanghai, China before the opening ceremony on Wednesday.

    Schoeman, 25, the world record holder on men's 100m freestyle set in Berlin 2005, won double golds in Montreal worlds in men's 50m butterfly and 50m freestyle including a record-breaking 22.96 seconds in 50m butterfly. He was also a big winner on CommonwealthGames last month pocketing three gold medals.

    FINA, the world swimming governing body, attributed Schoeman's withdrawal to his fatigue resulted from the Commonwealth games.

    More than 600 athletes from 121 countries and regions attended the event including 30 swimmers from Montreal swimming world championship and 16 medallists in Athens Olympic games and 11 world record holders worldwide.

    But the championship also suffered cold snap by the absence of big names like Ian Thorpe, Grant Hackett, Michael Phelps and Chinese icon Luo Xuejuan due to physical unfitness. Enditem