Michael Phelps is closing in rapidly on Mark Spitz

By Peter Auf der Heyde Mar 29, 2007, 12:26 GMT

Michael Phelps of the USA swims the butterfly leg on his way to finishing first in a new world record time in the men\'s 200m individual medley (IM) final in the Susie O\'Neill pool at the FINA Swimming World Championships in Melbourne, Australia, Thursday 29 March 2007. EPA/PATRICK B. KRAEMER

Melbourne - Mark Spitz's performance at the 1972 Olympics is still widely considered the pinnacle of swimming, but the exploits of Michael Phelps at the world championships are coming very close.

Phelps now seems destined to overtake the fellow-American Spitz, who won seven gold medals 35 years ago in Munich, at the Beijing Olympics next year.

At the start of the world championships in Melbourne, Phelps said he was aiming to win an unprecedented eight gold medals - five individual ones and three relay gold.

On Thursday, the 21-year-old was half-way there.

On the first day of competition, Sunday, he was the first swimmer in the victorious 4x100m freestyle relay and followed that up on Tuesday with the gold in the 200m freestyle. A day later he won gold in the 200m butterfly and on Thursday it was the 200m medley gold that came his way.

Not surprisingly, he said that he was pleased with his performance so far.

'The test drive is going well so far. I'm halfway down. I've gotten a lot of speed over the last year after a solid year of lifting, it's definitely given me more muscle. I've got more speed.'

Still outstanding are the 100m butterfly and the 400m medley, as well as two relays.

Phelps, however, not only won the gold medals - most experts had expected that - but won them in a way which put him into a class of his own.

He not only broke world records, he quite simply obliterated them, cutting through them as if they never existed.

The first record he broke was in the 200m freestyle, which previously belonged to local favourite Ian Thorpe. He managed to become the first person to swim under 1 minute 44 seconds.

He paid a tribute to Thorpe afterwards: 'He is definitely one of the greatest swimmers of all time. To take the record, it is not unexpected but it is not what I thought I would do - break 1:44.0. I thought maybe mid 1:44.0.'

He said that breaking Thorpe's record had been special.

'They are definitely all satisfying. To be able to say you are the best at something is pretty special. This record is in my top three. The biggest thing is to come to Australia and do it here where Ian Thorpe swam.'

On Wednesday, he smashed the 200m butterfly record. The 1.62 seconds he took off his own world record was the biggest world record-breaking margin in the event since 1959.

Even though Phelps, who has reached superstar status in the US and has all the endorsements that go with it, probably does not need it, his performance in Melbourne had at the half-way stage already earned him more than 100,000 US dollars.

For the first time in the history of the long-course world championship the sport's controlling body FINA is paying out prize money.

For his three world records Phelps has pocketed 75,000 dollars, for his three individual titles a further 36,000 dollars. He will also be getting a share of the relay prize money.

Baltimore-born Phelps - as of Thursday - had won a record total of 14 gold medals at the world championships and bettered 14 world records.

After the world championships, his next big goal will be the Beijing Olympics, where he will again attempt eight gold medals.

He already won eight medals in Athens three years ago, when he tied Mark Spitz's Olympic Games record of four individual gold medals.

But even though he won two relay golds, his two other swims ended in bronze medals, giving him a total of eight medals, to equal the Olympic record held by Soviet Union gymnast Alexandr Dityatin for the most medals won by an athlete at a single Olympic Games in all sports.

He will attempt to better that in Beijing by taking eight golds, to finally lay the ghost of Mark Spitz to rest.

Phelps believes he can do it.

'I've said this before: anything is possible if you put your mind to it. I've had a good attitude and I've been successful. I'm going to stick to what works,' he said.