By Stephen J. Thomas
ATHENS, August 18. MICHAEL Phelps set an new Olympic record tonight qualifying fastest for his fourth individual final in 1:58.52 breaking Italian Massi Rosolino's Sydney mark.
The USA's other entrant in this event, Ryan Lochte, did a pretty good job too, clocking 1:59.58, just short of his best from Trials to be second best tonight.
Hungarian Laszio Cseh was the only other man under the two-minute mark touching in 1:59.65, slightly slower than his 1:59.50 in the prelims.
Trinidad's George Bovell, who will be shooting for his country's first swimming medal tomorrow, made it through in 2:00.31
Michael Phelps said after his race, "At the Olympic Trials I thought they would be more taxing than the Olympics but now that I'm here, the Olympics are certainly more taxing." With three gold medals and two bronze thus far, "the Bullet from Baltimore is handling it all preety well.
Title-holder Massi Rosolino missed the cut as did his countryman Alessio Boggiatto. Oussama Mellouli also missed the cut but set another African record 2:01.11.
Men 200m Individual Medley Semifinals
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 1 4 PHELPS Michael USA 0.73 25.24 54.57
29.33 1:30.40
35.83 1:58.52
28.12 OR
2 1 2 LOCHTE Ryan USA 0.72 26.50 56.38
29.88 1:30.75
34.37 1:59.58
28.83 1.06
3 2 4 CSEH Laszlo HUN 0.83 25.65 55.46
29.81 1:30.73
35.27 1:59.65
28.92 1.13
4 2 3 PEREIRA Thiago BRA 0.69 25.94 56.26
30.32 1:31.17
34.91 2:00.07
28.90 1.55
5 2 5 BOVELL George TRI 0.83 26.52 57.29
30.77 1:31.46
34.17 2:00.31
28.85 1.79
6 1 6 JANUSAITIS Vytautas LTU 0.83 26.39 55.97
29.58 1:31.29
35.32 2:00.57
29.28 2.05
6 2 2 MORI Takahiro JPN 0.73 26.16 57.43
31.27 1:32.27
34.84 2:00.57
28.30 2.05
8 1 5 MIKI Jiro JPN 0.65 26.74 57.60
30.86 1:32.45
34.85 2:01.09
28.64 2.57
9 2 8 MELLOULI Oussama TUN 0.73 26.52 57.51
30.99 1:32.61
35.10 2:01.11
28.50 2.59 AF
10 1 3 BOGGIATTO Alessio ITA 0.77 26.95 58.33
31.38 1:33.07
34.74 2:01.27
28.20 2.75
11 2 7 ROSOLINO Massimiliano ITA 0.86 26.85 58.96
32.11 1:32.69
33.73 2:01.29
28.60 2.77
12 1 8 KOKKODIS Ioannis GRE 0.86 26.63 57.49
30.86 1:32.68
35.19 2:01.57
28.89 3.05
13 1 1 KEREKJARTO Tamas HUN 0.67 26.05 57.37
31.32 1:32.48
35.11 2:01.89
29.41 3.37
14 2 6 KENT Dean NZL 0.74 27.01 57.63
30.62 1:32.34
34.71 2:01.94
29.60 3.42
15 2 1 TURNER Adrian GBR 0.82 26.70 58.87
32.17 1:33.25
34.38 2:02.06
28.81 3.54
16 1 7 FRANCIS Robin GBR 0.84 27.08 58.80
31.72 1:33.86
35.06 2:03.85
29.99