Rare defeat for Phelps, in heats - Coventry with Olympic record

Aug 10, 2008, 11:59 GMT

Beijing - United States superstar Michael Phelps on Sunday suffered a rare - if inconsequential - defeat in the men's 200m freestyle heats at the Beijing Olympics.

Phelps, who earlier on Sunday won the men's 400m individual medley, was beaten in his heat by Switzerland's Dominik Meichtry, who had a time of 1 minute 45.80 seconds, beating Phelps by .68 seconds.

Third place in the heat went to freshly-crowned 400m freestyle gold medallist Park Tae Hwan of South Korea. South African Jean Basson and Canadian Brent Hayden also bettered Phelps' time in their heats.

In the women's 100m backstroke, Reiko Nakamura bettered the Olympic record to 59.36, only to see Zimbabwean Kirsty Coventry swim a flat 59.00 in the very next heat.

Nakamura said that she swam as she had been practising.

'I was calm during the race and today's performance can be utilised for the semi-final. I have been practising to get 59 for the heat. I guess the medal will go to someone who swims 58's in the final.'

There was some disappointment for the partisan Chinese crowd as Zhao Jing, who would have qualified for the semi-finals in the event, was disqualified for being under the water for too long after the start.