ATHENS, Greece. August 18. LASZLO CSEH, the Hungarian medley star, blasted the only time under two minutes in the prelims of the men's 200 IM, clocking 1:59.50. The time moves the 18-year-old to sixth on the all-time performers list.
World record-holder Michael Phelps was on cruise control, winning his heat in 2:00.01, the second-fastest prelims time.
Medal hopeful George Bovell of Trinidad (and Auburn University) was next in 2:00.65. At the NCAA Championships in March, Bovell set the short course WR in this event.
Brazilian teen sensation Thiago Pereira went 2:01.12, fifth fastest this morning, having clocked 1:59.48 here in Athens in June. That time leaves him ranked third in the world this year.
The two Japanese, Jiro Miki (fourth, 2:00.93) and Takahiro Mori (ninth, 2:01.33) made it to round 2, as did the Italian pair Alessio Boggiatto (2:01.30) and Massi Rosilino (2:01.56). Rosolino is the dfending Olympic champion in this event.
The second American, Ryan Lochte — like Phelps, a member of last night's gold medal-winning 800 meter free relay — was 10th in 2:01.41. Brits Robin Francis (2:01.57) and Adrian Turner (2:01.73) will also be in the mix this evening.
Tunisian World Champs bronze medalist Oussama Mellouli clocked an African record 2:01.94 and Greek hero Ioannis Kokkodis was the last man through in 2:02.11.
Aussie rookie Adam Lucas missed the cut by just 0.01 of a second.
Notable nonqualifiers included former world record-holder Finn Jani Sievinen, German Christian Keller, Aussie Justin Norris and Canada’s Brian Johns
Men 200m Individual Medley Heats
Record Splits Name NOC Location Date
WR 1:55.94 25.15 54.03 1:28.35 PHELPS Michael USA College Park (USA) 09 AUG 2003
OR 1:58.98 26.59 57.36 1:30.88 ROSOLINO Massimiliano ITA Sydney (AUS) 21 SEP 2000
Event No: 23
Rank Heat Lane Name NOC R.T. 50m 100m 150m Time Time
Behind
1 6 3 CSEH Laszlo HUN 0.86 25.67 55.23
29.56 1:30.62
35.39 1:59.50
28.88
2 7 4 PHELPS Michael USA 0.74 26.12 55.61
29.49 1:31.66
36.05 2:00.01
28.35 0.51
3 5 4 BOVELL George TRI 0.82 26.65 56.97
30.32 1:31.82
34.85 2:00.65
28.83 1.15
4 7 3 MIKI Jiro JPN 0.69 26.53 57.21
30.68 1:32.12
34.91 2:00.93
28.81 1.43
5 7 5 PEREIRA Thiago BRA 0.71 25.53 56.14
30.61 1:30.98
34.84 2:01.12
30.14 1.62
6 6 6 BOGGIATTO Alessio ITA 0.81 26.68 58.14
31.46 1:33.05
34.91 2:01.30
28.25 1.80
7 6 8 KENT Dean NZL 0.75 26.46 56.73
30.27 1:31.35
34.62 2:01.31
29.96 1.81
8 6 7 JANUSAITIS Vytautas LTU 0.84 26.03 55.88
29.85 1:31.27
35.39 2:01.32
30.05 1.82
9 7 6 MORI Takahiro JPN 0.74 26.29 57.50
31.21 1:32.42
34.92 2:01.33
28.91 1.83
10 6 4 LOCHTE Ryan USA 0.70 27.56 57.96
30.40 1:33.08
35.12 2:01.41
28.33 1.91
11 6 5 ROSOLINO Massimiliano ITA 0.86 26.82 58.98
32.16 1:33.35
34.37 2:01.56
28.21 2.06
12 7 2 FRANCIS Robin GBR 0.87 26.81 58.16
31.35 1:32.48
34.32 2:01.57
29.09 2.07
13 6 2 TURNER Adrian GBR 0.84 26.66 57.98
31.32 1:32.71
34.73 2:01.73
29.02 2.23
14 7 7 KEREKJARTO Tamas HUN 0.68 26.06 57.17
31.11 1:32.54
35.37 2:01.75
29.21 2.25
15 5 2 MELLOULI Oussama TUN 0.75 26.33 57.84
31.51 1:33.31
35.47 2:01.94
28.63 2.44 AF
16 4 4 KOKKODIS Ioannis GRE 0.89 26.98 57.95
30.97 1:32.82
34.87 2:02.11
29.29 2.61
17 7 1 LUCAS Adam AUS 0.74 26.52 57.36
30.84 1:32.83
35.47 2:02.12
29.29 2.62
18 4 3 ALEXANDROV Mihail BUL 0.74 25.92 57.19
31.27 1:32.09
34.90 2:02.39
30.30 2.89
19 6 1 ZHAO Tao CHN 0.86 27.16 57.29
30.13 1:33.13
35.84 2:02.41
29.28 2.91
20 5 5 SIEVINEN Jani FIN 0.78 27.28 59.13
31.85 1:33.96
34.83 2:02.79
28.83 3.29
21 5 7 KELLER Christian GER 0.80 26.45 58.82
32.37 1:34.05
35.23 2:02.93
28.88 3.43
22 4 5 SERGEYEV Sergiy UKR 0.74 26.59 58.39
31.80 1:33.36
34.97 2:03.26
29.90 3.76
23 4 8 ALLY Bradley BAR 0.72 26.42 57.43
31.01 1:33.43
36.00 2:03.29
29.86 3.79
24 5 8 WU Peng CHN 0.79 26.45 58.34
31.89 1:34.96
36.62 2:03.60
28.64 4.10
25 4 7 DEICMANS Guntars LAT 0.85 26.98 58.90
31.92 1:34.27
35.37 2:03.68
29.41 4.18
26 5 1 YABE Diogo BRA 0.76 26.64 58.52
31.88 1:34.08
35.56 2:03.86
29.78 4.36
27 5 3 NORRIS Justin AUS 0.81 26.25 59.03
32.78 1:34.65
35.62 2:03.87
29.22 4.37
28 5 6 JOHNS Brian CAN 0.82 27.23 59.10
31.87 1:35.05
35.95 2:03.95
28.90 4.45
29 7 8 ZATSEPINE Alexei RUS 0.79 27.05 58.65
31.60 1:34.41
35.76 2:04.11
29.70 4.61
30 4 6 KNOWLES Jeremy Daniel BAH 0.79 26.48 58.91
32.43 1:34.45
35.54 2:04.22
29.77 4.72
31 3 6 CARSTENSEN Jacob DEN 0.76 27.00 1:00.53
33.53 1:36.11
35.58 2:04.80
28.69 5.30
32 3 3 KIM Bang-Hyun KOR 0.84 27.46 59.63
32.17 1:35.86
36.23 2:05.06
29.20 5.56
33 3 2 MOLINA Miguel PHI 0.67 26.97 58.74
31.77 1:34.58
35.84 2:05.28
30.70 5.78
34 3 4 CAC Kresimir CRO 0.86 26.98 59.91
32.93 1:35.28
35.37 2:05.33
30.05 5.83
35 2 4 BENABID Raouf ALG 0.72 26.54 58.43
31.89 1:36.53
38.10 2:06.34
29.81 6.84
36 2 6 HACIANE Hocine AND 0.78 27.48 1:00.86
33.38 1:36.83
35.97 2:06.48
29.65 6.98
37 4 1 TOWNSEND Darian RSA 0.75 26.13 59.12
32.99 1:37.01
37.89 2:07.04
30.03 7.54
38 2 3 MILADINOVSKI Aleksandar MKD 0.77 26.49 59.06
32.57 1:36.27
37.21 2:07.39
31.12 7.89
39 3 5 ZAHAROV Andrei MDA 0.85 26.84 1:01.85
35.01 1:37.37
35.52 2:07.40
30.03 7.90
40 3 1 SUTANTO Albert INA 0.74 26.95 58.94
31.99 1:37.33
38.39 2:07.55
30.22 8.05
41 2 1 MACKAY Andrew CAY 0.59 27.78 1:00.18
32.40 1:37.57
37.39 2:07.65
30.08 8.15
42 2 2 PUKHNATIY Oleg UZB 0.82 27.02 58.82
31.80 1:35.73
36.91 2:08.24
32.51 8.74
43 3 7 TAN Gary SIN 0.77 26.93 59.15
32.22 1:37.53
38.38 2:08.44
30.91 8.94
44 2 7 WU Nien Pin TPE 0.61 27.26 59.62
32.36 1:39.08
39.46 2:08.72
29.64 9.22
45 1 4 OLIVER Jorge PUR 0.75 26.38 58.65
32.27 1:37.56
38.91 2:08.84
31.28 9.34
45 2 5 ORAL Oguz Orel TUR 0.76 27.80 1:00.98
33.18 1:37.88
36.90 2:08.84
30.96 9.34
47 3 8 FALL Malick SEN 0.84 28.03 1:01.09
33.06 1:38.63
37.54 2:12.13
33.50 12.63
48 1 3 DIMITRIADIS Georgios CYP 0.79 27.38 1:00.52
33.14 1:40.15
39.63 2:12.27
32.12 12.77
4 2 MANKOC Peter SLO
DNS
1 5 RYZHKOV Yevgeniy KAZ 0.82
DSQ