Beijing - Michael Phelps made it a perfect triple - so far - this morning at the Water Cube as he shredded the field to win the men's 200-metre freestyle in a world record time of one minute and 42.96 seconds for his third gold medal so far, all of them in world-record time.
The 23-year-old American superstar won by almost two seconds over Taehwan Park of Korea (1:44.85), while American Peteer Vanderkaay took bronze in 1:45.14.
Phelps won the men's 400-metre individual medley in world-record time (4:03.84) Sunday, and helped the U.S. men win the 4x100-metre freestyle relay Monday, setting another world mark (3:08.24).
He was only the fourth-fastest qualifier for the this one, but wasn't sweating such small stuff.
Like the track runners who have to manage their energy through heats, semifinals and finals, Phelps can't waste any puff going for it a mere heat. Not that he has to.
When all is said and done, he is expected to have churned away in at least 17 races, heats, semis and finals accounted for. That's assuming Team USA will let him skip a couple of relay preliminaries. One of them was the men's 200-metre butterfly semifinals, which were to go later this morning.
So, he wasn't about to empty the tank in the 200-free qualifier.
"I don't want to say I cruised it, but I swam it the way I wanted," Phelps said Monday night.
"It doesn't matter until the finals.
"As long as you have a lane, you're in it."
Phelps' gold-medal haul continues
Michael Phelps.
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Published on
August 12, 2008
- Published on July 1, 2010
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CanWest News Service
OLYMPICS
Michael Phelps made it a perfect triple - so far - this morning at the Water Cube as he shredded the field to win the men's 200-metre freestyle in a world record time of one minute and 42.96 seconds for his third gold medal so far, all of them in world-record time.
The 23-year-old American superstar won by almost two seconds over Taehwan Park of Korea (1:44.85), while American Peteer Vanderkaay took bronze in 1:45.14.
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