By John Lohn
MELBOURNE, Australia, March 27. HE'LL look for the world record tomorrow. The semifinal was simply about advancing. Less than 90 minutes after he set the global standard in the 200 freestyle, Michael Phelps was fastest in the semifinals of the 200 fly with a time of 1:55.13.
Phelps produced an intelligent race, sitting back for the first two laps before picking it up over the final 100 meters. He got to the wall ahead of China's Wu Peng, who touched in 1:55.17. Considering the way he's been racing this week, expect Phelps to challenge his world record of 1:53.71, set last month at the Missouri Grand Prix.
"I definitely have a bit of speed now, more than I had a year ago," Phelps said. "The weights really helped me a lot last year."
Japan's Ryuichi Shibata (1:55.96) and China's Chen Yin (1:56.04) continued the strong showing in the event by Asia and will mix it up for silver and bronze. New Zealand's Moss Burmester (1:56.27) was fifth and Russia's Nikolav Skvortsov placed sixth in 1:56.28. The defending champ, Poland's Pawel Korzeniowski (1:56.30) was seventh and Greece's Ioannis Drymonakos (1:56.47) closed out the championship field. American Davis Tarwater was timed in 1:56.58, but placed 10th and did not reach the final.
Click Here to view event results PDF file.
