The Hindu : Phelps helps himself to a gold

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jul 25, 2003

Sport

Sport - Swimming

Phelps helps himself to a gold

World record-holder, Michael Phelps of the United States swimming to the men's 200m butterfly gold at the 10th World swimming championships in Barcelona on Wednesday. — AFP

BARCELONA July 24. Michael Phelps got his first gold medal of the World swimming championships, but he's still got some catching up to do against Ian Thorpe.

After Wednesday's performances — where Phelps won the 200 butterfly and Thorpe anchored Australia to victory ahead of Phelps' American team in the 800 freestyle relay — the talk around the Palau St. Jordi pool was that Thorpe is still No. 1.

"He knows he can only bring out the best in himself when he's with the best and that's the attraction of Ian," Phelps' coach Bob Bowman said. "Ian is the best. There's no doubt about it."

Thorpe has three golds to Phelps' one so far.

In the 200 butterfly, Phelps clocked 1 minute, 54.35 seconds, just slightly off his World record-time of 1:53.93 set a day earlier in the semifinals. The two times are the fastest in history. The 18-year-old American also won gold in the 200 fly at the 2001 worlds in Fukuoka, Japan.

Japan's Takashi Yamamoto took the silver medal in 1:55.52, and Tom Malchow of the United States claimed bronze in 1:55.66.

Less than an hour after his gold-medal performance, Phelps put the American team ahead in the first leg of the 800 freestyle relay. Phelps could do nothing but watch, however, as Australia and Thorpe eventually swam to the gold medal.

The `Dolphins' team of Grant Hackett, Craig Stevens, Nicholas Sprenger and Thorpe won in 7:08.58, followed by the silver medalist Americans in 7:10.26 and bronze medalist Germany in 7:14.02. Australia holds the world record (7:04.66).

The Americans were still leading going into the third leg, but Sprenger recovered a large deficit and Thorpe, better known as the `Thorpedo', comfortably cruised to victory for his third gold medal of the championships.

At the 2001 worlds, Thorpe finished with six gold medals.

In Wednesday's women's 200 freestyle, Alena Popchanka of Belarus won the gold medal in 1:58.32, beating silver medalist Martina Moravcova (1:58.44) of Slovakia and bronze medalist Yang Yu of China (1:58.54).

James Gibson won Britain's first world championship gold medal since 1975 by taking the 50 breaststroke title. Gibson clocked 27.56. Oleg Lisogor of Ukraine took silver (27.74) while Mihaly Flaskay of Hungary got the bronze (27.79).

"I won that race in the heats and semis," Gibson said. "They had to come out and beat me today. I made sure I got it in their heads they weren't going to."

Twenty-eight years ago, David Wilkie won both the 100 and 200 breaststroke for Britain.

"British breaststrokers are here and here to stay," Gibson said.

In the 100 freestyle, world record-holder Pieter van den Hoogenband, who had the quickest time in the morning heats, also topped the semifinals.

The results:

Men's 50m breaststroke: 1. James Gibson (G.Br) 27.56, 2. Oleg Lisogor (Ukr) 27.56, 3. Mihaly Flaskay (Hun).

Men's 200m butterfly: 1. Michael Phelps (U.S.) 1:54.35, 2. Takashi Yamamoto (Jpn) 1:55.52, 3. Thomas Malchow (U.S.) 1:55.66.

Men's 800m freestyle relay: 1. Australia (Grant Hackett, Craig Stevens, Nicholas Sprenger, Ian Thorpe), 7:08.58, 2. United States (Michael Phelps, Nate Dusing, Aaron Peirsol, Klete Keller), 7:10.26, 3. Germany (Johannes Oesterling, Lars Conrad, Stefan Herbst, Christian Keller), 7:14.02.

Women's 200m freestyle: 1. Alena Popchanka (Blr) 1:58.32, 2. Martina Moravcova (Svk) 1:58.44, 3. Yang Yu (Chn) 1:58.54.

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