Phelps, Hackett stay on course, Steffen spoils US sweep (2nd Roundup)

By Peter Auf der Heyde Aug 15, 2008, 13:41 GMT

Beijing - Germany's Britta Steffen gatecrashed an American victory parade on Friday as she took the women's 100m freestyle - the only non-American to win a gold medal in the Olympic swimming competition on the day as Michael Phelps, Rebecca Soni and Ryan Lochte all swam world records.

In the evening heats Australian Grant Hackett and Phelps stayed on course for their pieces of history.

Hackett, who is attempting to become the first swimmer to win the men's 1,500m freestyle three times in a row qualified for the final with an Olympic record.

His time of 14:38.92, beat the 14:40.84 that Canadian Ryan Cochrane swam two heats earlier. Both times broke Hackett's Athens time of 14:43.40.

In the men's 4x100m medley relay a US B team stayed on track to give Phelps an unprecedented eight gold medals at the Olympics as they swam the fastest time. Their 3:32.75 beat the Australian team by one hundredth of a second.

In the morning session superstar Phelps set the benchmark for overall medals a little bit higher when he won his sixth gold medal of the competition and his 12th gold overall, to go three clear of four athletes with nine all-time Olympic golds.

Phelps took his world record tally to six from six finals with victory in the men's 200m individual medley in a time of 1 minute 54.23 seconds.

Lochte won the men's 200m backstroke in a world record time of 1:53.94 - just 20 minutes before winning bronze in the 200 IM - while Soni took the women's 200m breaststroke in 2:20.22 seconds, also in world record time.

Steffen took a gold with a remarkable comeback that saw her win after lying just eighth at the turn as she managed to overtake the leading Australian Lisbeth Trickett with the last touch, beating the world record holder by just 0.04 seconds.

Third place went to American Natalie Coughlin in 53.39 seconds.

It was the first swimming medal for Germany in the Beijing Water Cube and the country's first Olympic swimming gold since Barcelona 1992 when Dagmar Hase won the women's 400m freestyle.

In the men's 200m IM, the medals went to the same swimmers who also stood on the podium in the same order for the 400m IM, with Phelps being followed by Hungarian Laszlo Cseh and Lochte.

Cseh's time of 1:56.52 beat Lochte by just one hundredth of a second.

Phelps broke his own world record of 1:54.80 that he established at the US trials last month.

The 23-year-old later qualified for his seventh final in the last event of the morning when he had the second-fastest time in the 100m butterfly. Phelps' swam a 50.97, while Milorad Cavic was just 0.04 seconds faster.

Jason Dunford of Kenya also qualified for the final with the fifth-fastest time of 51.33.

In the women's 200m breaststroke, Soni was too strong for Jones as she beat the Australian 1.83 seconds.

Both swimmers were under the previous best mark set by Jones in Melbourne two years ago.

Third place went to Norwegian Sara Nordenstam, who swam a European record in 2:23.02.

In the men's 200m backstroke, Lochte won his first individual Olympic gold medal as he beat 100m backstroke champion Aaron Peirsol, with whom he shared the world record going into the swim.

Lochte's world record time of 1:53.94 was enough to beat Peirsol by 0.39 seconds. The previous record stood at 1:54.32. Russian Arkady Vyatchanin established a European record for the bronze medal in 1:54.93.

In the men's 50m freestyle semi-finals Brazilian Cesar Cielo showed that he is the man to beat as he qualified for the final with the fastest time of 21.34, breaking the Olympic record he held for a few minutes on Thursday by 0.10 seconds.

There was an upset in the women's 200m backstroke semi-final as France's Laure Manaudou, who was considered as one of the favourites, failed to qualify for the final as she managed only the 14th fastest time in 2:12.04, well off the pace set by Zimbabwean Kirsty Coventry, who won her heat in 2:07.76.

In the evening session Australian Cate Campbell led the swimmers into the semi-finals of the women's 50m freestyle with a time of 24.20, beating Marleen Veldhuis' of the Netherlands by 0.18.

Also comfortably through to the semi-finals were Germany's Britta Steffen and Lisbeth Trickett, who in the morning session, had finished first and second respectively in the 100m freestyle.

Trickett said that she was very happy with her swim. 'It's obviously a very different format to have to have the finals in the morning and the heats at night.'

41-year-old American Dara Torres, who earlier in the competition became the oldest-ever swimming medallist when she won silver with the US 4x100m relay team, had the third-fastest time.

In the women's 4x100 medley relay, Australia qualified first for the final with a time of 3:57.94, while Great Britain surprisingly had the second-fastest time, beating the fancied US team by one hundredth of a second in 3:59.14.