By Phillip Whitten
ATHENS, August 16. LESS than an hour after finishing third in the 200m freestyle final behind Ian Thorpe and Pieter van den Hoogenband, Michael Phelps posted an easy 1:55.65 in the semifinals of the 200 fly.
But it wasn't the fastest semifinal time. In fact, it wasn't the fastest 200 fly in his semifinal heat. Those honors were garnered by former Florida State star Stephen Parry, who turned in Britain's first outstanding swim of the meet.
Parry touched in 1:55.57 to Phelps' 1:55.65, as no other swimmer cracked 1:56.
Poland's 19 year-old Pawel Korzeniowski was third at 1:56.40, followed by Takashi Yamamoto of Japan, Wu Peng of China and former NCAA champ from Alabama, Ioan Gherghel of Romania..
It took a swift 1:57.48 to make the final, and that's precisely how fast defending Olympic champion Tom Malchow swam. Plagued by shoulder injuries, Big Tom slipped into the final by a tenth of a second.
Among the notable non-qualifiers: Anatoli Poliakov (RUS); Denis Sylantyev (UKR); Justin Norris (AUS); Franck Esposito (FRA); and Juan Veloz (MEX).
Men 200m Butterfly Semifinals
Record Splits Name NOC Location Date
WR 1:53.93 25.95 54.89 1:24.28 PHELPS Michael USA Barcelona (ESP) 22 JUL 2003
OR 1:55.35 26.21 55.75 1:25.27 MALCHOW Thomas USA Sydney (AUS) 19 SEP 2000
Event No: 14
Rank Heat Lane Name NOC R.T. 50m 100m 150m Time Time
Behind
1 1 8 PARRY Stephen GBR 0.71 25.81 55.16
29.35 1:25.05
29.89 1:55.57
30.52
2 1 4 PHELPS Michael USA 0.75 26.05 55.35
29.30 1:25.66
30.31 1:55.65
29.99 0.08
3 2 5 KORZENIOWSKI Pawel POL 0.83 26.64 55.96
29.32 1:25.98
30.02 1:56.40
30.42 0.83
4 2 4 YAMAMOTO Takashi JPN 0.71 26.30 56.23
29.93 1:26.63
30.40 1:56.69
30.06 1.12
5 2 3 WU Peng CHN 0.80 26.20 55.87
29.67 1:26.08
30.21 1:56.81
30.73 1.24
6 2 2 GHERGHEL Ioan ROM 0.85 26.72 56.87
30.15 1:27.17
30.30 1:57.31
30.14 1.74
7 2 7 SKVORTSOV Nikolay RUS 0.89 26.48 56.09
29.61 1:26.95
30.86 1:57.37
30.42 1.80
8 1 5 MALCHOW Tom USA 0.77 26.49 56.38
29.89 1:26.83
30.45 1:57.48
30.65 1.91
9 1 6 POLIAKOV Anatoli RUS 0.81 26.69 56.33
29.64 1:26.62
30.29 1:57.58
30.96 2.01
10 2 8 SYLANTYEV Denys UKR 0.81 26.03 55.76
29.73 1:26.52
30.76 1:57.93
31.41 2.36
11 1 3 NORRIS Justin AUS 0.82 26.47 56.19
29.72 1:26.29
30.10 1:57.96
31.67 2.39
12 1 2 BURMESTER Moss NZL 0.80 26.58 56.49
29.91 1:27.18
30.69 1:58.09
30.91 2.52
13 1 1 ADVENA Sergii UKR 0.87 26.81 56.66
29.85 1:26.74
30.08 1:58.11
31.37 2.54
14 1 7 MATSUDA Takeshi JPN 0.79 26.63 56.19
29.56 1:26.77
30.58 1:58.13
31.36 2.56
15 2 6 ESPOSITO Franck FRA 0.73 25.62 54.96
29.34 1:26.32
31.36 1:59.00
32.68 3.43
16 2 1 VELOZ DAVILA Juan Jose MEX 0.76 26.60 57.12
30.52 1:28.14
31.02 1:59.78
31.64 4.21