Enlarge imageBy Julian Linden
MONTREAL (Reuters) - The indefatigable Michael Phelps sailed into the semi-finals of two different events in less than an hour at the world swimming championships on Wednesday.
Showing no signs of weariness despite his punishing schedule, the American cruised through his heats in the 100 metres freestyle and 200m individual medley.
Phelps qualified third fastest in both events, despite returning to the pool less than 15 hours after capturing his second gold medal of the championships in the 200m freestyle on Tuesday night.
His time of 49.23 seconds in the 100m sprint was just over a quarter of a second behind Italian Filippo Magnini, whose 48.97 was the fastest time from any of the 17 heats.
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Ryk Neethling, third in the 200m behind Phelps and Australian Grant Hackett, was second quickest in 49.04 while his South African team mate Roland Schoeman tied with Phelps in 49.23.
The top 16 swimmers will contest Wednesday night’s semis with the fastest eight all advancing to Thursday’s final.
"Tonight is important for me because I want to erase some things from my mind," Phelps said.
"I will have to put that race (200m freestyle) behind me and get ready for my other races."
Phelps, who was hoping to win a record eight gold medals in Montreal but failed in the 400m freestyle heats, is an outsider to win the blue-riband sprint with Schoeman the favourite in the absence of world record Pieter van den Hoogenband.
GREAT FORM
Schoeman finished second to the flying Dutchman at last year’s Athens Olympics and has already shown he is great form this week after winning the 50m butterfly gold with his second world record in 24 hours.
Phelps said his main aim was to win the individual medley.
"I’m feeling good, I’m where I wanted to be," he said.
"I’ll get some energy back today and hopefully this will continue tonight and tomorrow in the IM."
With Phelps conserving his strength, Hungary’s Laszlo Cseh topped the qualifying for the medley in a time of one minute 59.56 seconds, more than three and a half seconds outside Phelps’s world record for that event.
Italy’s Alessio Boggiatto was second fastest in 2:00.24 while Phelps stopped the clock at 2:00.30 although none of those men could have been more pleased than Kenya’s Amar Shah, who finished 51st in a time of 2:20.15 but leapt out of the pool like he had just broken the world record.
"It was as if I was running," he blurted. "I feel so natural in the water."
Poland’s Otylia Jedrzejczak, the world record holder and Olympic champion, set the best time of 2:09.21 in the heats of the women’s 200m butterfly.
She was just 0.19 ahead of Australia’s Jessicah Schipper, who won the 100m butterfly on Monday. Japan’s Yurie Yano was third in 2:10.19.
China’s Gao Chang led the way in the women’s 50m backstroke heats with a time of 28.70. Japan’s Mai Nakamura was second in 28.92 while Germany’s Janine Pietsch, who set the world record of 28.19 two months ago, placed third in 28.95.
