Two Olympic records go in heats as US swimmers dominate

By George Burns Aug 13, 2008, 12:46 GMT

Beijing - All the main medal hopes made their way safely through Wednesday night's swimming heats although there was a subdued atmosphere compared to the morning session when Michael Phelps made Olympic history and six world records were broken.

Phelps, who earlier won two further golds to take his personal winning Olympic medal tally to 11, eased into the semi-finals of the men's 200-metre medley by winning his heat in 1 minute 58.65 seconds.

However, the 23-year-old had only the sixth-fastest time overall, behind fellow American Ryan Lochte, who swam 1:58.15.

The highlights of the evening at the National Aquatics Centre were an Olympic record-breaking swim by Rebecca Soni in the women's 200m breaststroke and a similar achievement by France in the women's 4x200m freestyle relay.

Soni won her heat in a time of 2 minutes 22.17 seconds, qualifying in a faster time than Australian world record holder Leisel Jones and beating the previous best Olympic mark of 2:23.37 minutes set by compatriot Amanda Beard in Athens on August 19, 2004.

Beard failed to make the list of 16 for the semis after registering the 18th fastest time.

'It means a lot, I wasn't expecting it,' said Soni of her record- breaking swim. 'Hopefully I will break it again but I am sure it will be broken a few more times in the rest of the meet.'

The French relay team set a new Olympic best mark of 7:50.37 in qualifying for the final, beating the previous best mark of 7:53.42, set by the US at the Athens Games on August 18, 2004, by over three seconds. The US, Italy, China and Australia all also safely qualified for Thursday's final.

Joint world record holders Aaron Piersol and Ryan Lochte of the United States both easily qualified for the semi-finals of the men's 200-metre backstroke.

Defending Olympic champion Piersol, who already has gold from the 100m backstroke, won his heat in a time of 1 minute 56.35 seconds, slightly slower than Lochte's time of 1:56.29, which was the quickest of the six heats.

'It was wonderful enough to do it in the 100m. If I could do it in the 200m it would be a dream come true,' said Piersol.

The Olympic silver-medallist from Athens, Markus Rogan of Austria, is also safely through to Thursday's semis after winning his heat in 1:56.64 minutes.

The fastest three qualifiers for the semi-finals of the women's 100m freestyle came from the penultimate heat, where Finland's Hanna- Maria Seppala won in a time of 53.60 seconds, beating Britta Steffen of Germany into second place. Marleen Veldhuis of the Netherlands took third.

American Natalie Coughlin beat world record holder Lisbeth Trickett of Australia in her heat, swimming a time of 53.82, but both comfortably qualified.