Records keep tumbling as Phelps makes history (Roundup)

By Peter Auf der Heyde Aug 12, 2008, 4:11 GMT

Beijing - Michael Phelps joined the list of most successful Olympians on Tuesday when he broke a world record and equalled an Olympic one - all within the space of 60 minutes.

The American superstar won the men's 200m freestyle in world record time and then went on to equal the 200m butterfly Olympic record on a day in which two world records and three Olympic records were broken.

Aaron Peirsol set a world record in the men's 100m breaststroke, while Australian Leisel Jones set an Olympic record when she won the 100m breaststroke.

The final record of the day belonged to Zimbabwean Kirsty Coventry who set an Olympic record in the semi-finals of the women's 200m individual medley.

Phelps, 23, won the 200m freestyle in 1 minute 42.96 seconds, beating South Korean Park Tae-Hwan (1:44.85) and American Peter Vanderkaay (1:45.14) into second place.

The American beat his own world record of 1:43.86 that he established at the world championships in Melbourne last year.

'I wanted to try and get out into open water and I was in the outside lane so it was kind of difficult for the others to see me. I just wanted to get out there and try to hold on.

I knew Park was going to have a good last 50 metres, so I tried to start as far ahead as I could in the first 100m to 150m,' Phelps said.

Park had on Sunday won South Korea's first-ever Olympic gold medal in swimming when he took the men's 400m freestyle.

He paid a tribute to Phelps after the race. 'I was in really good shape, but Phelps swam so fast. It's really fast and it is my honour to compete against him.'

Vanderkaay was also satisfied with his performance. 'It means a lot to win my first individual medal and on a stage like this it is awesome.'

Phelps' third gold in the Water Cube saw him join the list of most successful Olympian athletes in Games history, with nine gold medal overall. The others are Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina, Finnish athlete Paavo Nurmi, US swimmer Mark Spitz and US athlete Carl Lewis.

Phelps needs just one more gold from five events to become the all-time record holder in gold medals at the Olympic Games. He also has two bronze medals from the Athens 2004 Games and is going for an unprecedented eight gold medals in Beijing.

American Natalie Coughlin won the women's 100m backstroke, beating Coventry in a time of 58.96 seconds.

Coventry was well below her world record time of 58.77 from Monday in the semi-final with 59.19 for silver. The bronze medal went to American Margaret Holzer, who finished in 59.34.

Coughlin, who was in tears as she received her gold medal, said that she could not believe she had won.

'It hasn't really sunk in yet. When I first saw the time I thought they had made a mistake. It was a very fast time. When I saw the one by my name I thought they had made a mistake. Then I saw my name there and I realised that I'd got it.'

In the men's 100m backstroke Peirsol broke the 10th world record of the competition as he won in a time of 52.54 seconds, beating the 52.89 he swam at the US trials in July.

The silver medal went to compatriot Matt Grevers with 53.11, while Russian Arkady Vyatchanin and Australian Hayden Stoeckel shared the bronze 0.07 seconds behind Grevers.

In the women's 100m backstroke Jones looked on course to break her own world record of 1:05.09, but fell just short, winning in a time of 1:05.17. American Rebecca Soni finished in a time of 1:06.73, while Austrian Mirna Jukic had 1:07.34.

For Jones it was the first individual gold medal at the Olympic Games. She has a relay gold from Athens, as well as three silvers and one bronze to her credit.

Less than an hour after his world record swim Phelps equalled the Olympic record in the 100m butterfly event, winning his heat in a time of 1:53.70. He already swam that in the heats on Monday.

In the women's 200m individual medley, Coughlin and Coventry also swam less than an hour after winning their medals in the 100m backstroke.

Both qualified comfortably for Wednesday's final, with Coventry winning her heat in the new Olympic record time of 2:09.53, beating the eight-year old record of Ukrainian Yana Klochkova by 1.15 seconds.

In the first event of the session, the women's 200m freestyle, favourites Katie Hoff from the US and Italian Federica Pellegrini easily went through to the finals.

The best time, however, belonged to Slovenian Sara Isakovic, who swam a 1:56.50.