The Hindu : Sport / Olympic Games : Phelps impresses in prelims

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Phelps impresses in prelims

BEIJING: Michael Phelps opened his quest to win eight gold medals by qualifying 1.44 seconds faster than his rivals with an Olympic-record time in the 400m individual medley preliminaries on Saturday.

The American won his heat in 4 minutes, 7.82 seconds — 44-hundredths of a second better than his gold-medal-winning time four years ago in Athens. Phelps was under his world-record pace after 150 metres of the four-stroke race, but eased off to save something for Sunday morning’s final.

“I am pretty surprised,” he said. “I didn’t think that I’d be first to get it, not until the finals.”

The crowd came alive for the women’s 100 butterfly, where China sent out its first two swimmers of the competition. Zhou Yafei tied American Christine Magnuson for second-quickest in 57.70 seconds. Leading the way was Jess Schipper of Australia in 57.58.

The other Chinese, Xu Yanwei, was 32nd and didn’t advance to the semifinals. Neither did Otylia Jedrzejczak of Poland, the silver medallist in Athens who finished four-hundredths of a second out of the 16th and last spot.

China really had something to cheer and wave its red flags about when countryman Zhang Lin outtouched World champion Park Tae-hwan of Korea to win his heat.

American Elaine Breeden moved on in sixth place, as did world champion Libby Trickett of Australia, who was 12th. “I was expecting to be faster,” Trickett said.

American Larsen Jensen advanced to the 400m freestyle final as the fastest qualifier in 3:43.10.

Grant Hackett will try to give Australia its third consecutive victory in the 400 free, but he’ll have to make up time in the final after advancing in fifth place at 3:44.03. — AP

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