Streamlined News: Recapping Day Seven of Olympic Swimming Prelims; More Water Polo Action

PHOENIX, Arizona, August 3. THE day after winning gold in the 50 free, Ranomi Kromowidjojo posted the fastest 50 free prelim time today with a 24.51, just ahead of her Dutch teammate Marleen Veldhuis and Great Britain's Fran Halsall. Kara Lynn Joyce of the United States was in a three-way tie for 16th place with Great Britain's Amy Smith and Sarah Bateman of Iceland, and in the swimoff, it was Smith who got to the wall first and a earned a place in the semifinal.

Sun Yang, as expected, is the top qualifier for tomorrow's 1500 freestyle final, and Ous Mellouli of Tunisia is in the final as well in pursuit of defending his title from 2008. Also in the final is 2008 bronze medalist Ryan Cochrane and American Connor Jaeger. Also keep an eye out in the final for Tae Hwan Park, who is likely to make a big run for gold as well.

Australia put up its best backstroker, breaststroker and butterflyer in the women's medley relay prelims, and will take lane four in tomorrow's final. The United States used its second-best swimmers for all the strokes and qualified fourth for the final. Japan and Denmark were second and third.

On the men's side, the United States qualified first for the medley relay with its second-quickest swimmers as well, with Australia qualifying fourth with its B team in the water and Japan third going with its best swimmers and Great Britain pleasing the home crowd by qualifying second.

Top seed Cesar Cielo will be flanked by two Americans in his quest to repeat as Olympic champion in the 50 freestyle tonight. Cullen Jones and Anthony Ervin are looking to dethrone the king in the event, but also look out for Cielo's Brazilian teammate Bruno Fratus in that final as well.

Rebecca Adlington will have the home crowd on her side as she tries to defend her title in the 800 freestyle. Lotte Friis of Denmark and Katie Ledecky of the United States will be her closest challengers.

Missy Franklin will go for her second individual gold of this meet in the final of the 200 back, and Michael Phelps will try the double-triple tonight in the 100 fly, trying to become the first person, man or woman, to threepeat in one event twice at the Olympics.

We'll have complete race recaps for you on swimmingworld.com.

There was no diving yesterday, but men's water polo was in full swing. The United States has won all three of their prelim matches so far, with defending champion Hungary finally getting in the win column after losing their first two matches. Serbia and Montenegro tied 11-11 in their matches yesterday, and Croatia also notched a win.

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