By John Lohn
BEIJING, China, August 11. WITH the latest version of the United States' Dream Team in attendance, Michael Phelps put on a small show during the preliminaries of the 200 butterfly. Opening the event that first made him an Olympian and introduced him to the world, Phelps easily qualified first for the semifinal round.
Expending minimal energy during the first three laps, Phelps picked up the tempo on his final 50, rocketing by Brazil's Kaio Almeida and registering an Olympic-record time of 1:53.70. Phelps held the former Games standard of 1:54.04, set in Athens four years ago. Phelps owns the world record in the event at 1:52.09.
Coming off a silver medal and European record in the 400 individual medley, where he finished second to Phelps, Hungary's Laszlo Cseh was the second-fastest qualifier of the prelims. Cseh clocked a personal best of 1:54.48. Almeida, meanwhile, was third overall behind a mark of 1:54.65, also a personal best.
Japan's Takeshi Matsuda checked in with the fifth-best time, an effort of 1:55.06. He was followed by Poland's Pawel Korzeniowski (1:55.21) and Russia's Nikolay Skvortsov (1:55.33). China's Wu Peng, the silver medalist at last year's World Championships, had a strong finish to advance in the seventh slot with a mark of 1:55.39. America Gil Stovall, also closing well, was next in 1:55.42.
Completing the field for the semifinals were Great Britain's Michael Rock (1:55.55), New Zealand's Moss Burmester (1:55.80), Japan's Ryuichi Shibata (1:55.82), Austria's Dinko Jukic (1:55.96), Romanian Stefan Gherghel (1:56.09), the Ukraine's Sergii Advena (1:56.24), China's Chen Yin (1:56.55) and Chinese Taipei's Hsu Chi-Chieh (1:56.59).
Results: 2008 Olympic Games - Swimming
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Reaction Time Comments
August 11, 2008 Anytime Cseh swims, be careful! He could surprise and give Phelps a race.... But Stovall still has plenty to show as does Peng. Semis will be a barn burner, that's for certain! Submitted by: paddles
August 11, 2008 Where did Cseh come from in this event? i dont remember him ever swimming this internationally. I remember him swimming the backstroke events but not the 200 fly. Submitted by: WUswimmer
August 11, 2008 the french comentateur said that cseh decided to swim the 200 fly because he thought that there was to many gap without swimming between the 400 medley and the 200 medley . Submitted by: maly
August 11, 2008 I want to see how Stovall handles the international competition in semis and then finals (assuming he gets there). He has two swimmers who can drop to the 1:53s (Cseh and Peng) and give him all he can handle. But, I honestly believe that if pushed HARD, Stovall can get into the high 52s. Submitted by: paddles
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