The cat fight of the Athens Olympics turned into more of a dog fight as Leisel Jones downed rival Brooke Hanson in the 100m breaststroke at the world championship trials.

The claws were retracted for what was billed as one of the races of the meet as Jones managed to topple Hanson in a time of one minute 7.24 seconds in Sydney.

The pair had a well-publicised tiff in Athens after Jones was preferred to Hanson for the 4x100m medley relay despite silver medallist Hanson toppling Jones by 0.01s in the 100m final.

The rift was healed with a hug at the end of the swimming competition and they joked at tonight's medal ceremony.

World record holder Jones was relieved to show her change of camps to Stephan Widmer late last year following her controversial Olympic campaign had not slowed her down.

"That was probably the most scary thing I suppose people's expectations and my own," said the 19-year-old.

"But it is not up them to decide, it is up to me to have a good swim so I think I have proved it doesn't really matter."

"I was most happy that I did the job I had to do that Stephan told me."

Jones has won enough bronze and silver in major meets to list her own mining company on the stock exchange and will be desperate to strike gold in Montreal in July.

Hanson felt winning the 200m individual medley had taken the edge off her before the much-hyped showdown.

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