Phelps Downs Meet Standard in 400 IM

VICTORIA, British Columbia, Aug. 18. AFTER an amazing world-record run in the 200-meter butterfly last night, Michael Phelps returned with a meet-standard time in the 400-meter IM at the 2006 Mutual of Omaha Pan Pacific Championships on Friday.

Phelps raced against the clock as no one else gave him much competition en route to a gold-medal 4:10.47. That time shaved two seconds off his previous meet record of 4:12.48 set in 2002.

“My goal coming into this meet was to go the top time in the world this year, I was just off that, but it's good to be two seconds faster than I was four years ago at Pan Pacs, so I can take that back to my training," Phelps said. "There are a lot of little things I can improve on, so hopefully I can get back to my best in a year."

Meanwhile, United States’ Robert Margalis may not have been able to chase down Phelps, but he easily distanced himself from anyone else with a silver-shaded time of 4:13.85. Brazil’s Thiago Pereira took home his country’s first medal of the event with a bronze-winning 4:18.44.

With another top-two sweep, the U.S. stretched its medal lead with a tally of 18 (11G, 7S), while Japan held on to second with nine (1G, 2S, 6B). Australia rounded out the top three with eight (1G, 2S, 5B).

Click Here to view event results PDF file

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