Michael Phelps opened his quest to win eight gold medals by qualifying 1.44 seconds faster than his rivals with an Olympic-record time in the 400m individual medley preliminaries last night.
The American won his heat in 4 minutes, 7.82 seconds — 44-hundredths of a second better than his gold-medal-winning time four years ago in Athens. Phelps was under his world-record pace after 150m of the four-stroke race, but eased off to save something for this morning’s final.
Laszlo Cseh of Hungary, the bronze medalist in Athens, was second-fastest in 4 minutes, 9.26 seconds. Luca Marin of Italy was third and American Ryan Lochte qualified fourth.
PHOTO: AFP
Phelps walked onto the deck of the Water Cube for the first of his 17 races in front of 17,000 fans, who were mostly quiet.
If they were aware of Phelps’ attempt to break Mark Spitz’s record of seven gold medals in a single Games, it was not apparent.
He wiped down the starting block in lane four with a white towel as Lochte churned through the final meters of his heat. Phelps first stretched his right leg on the block, then his left before removing his ear buds and getting ready to race.
Phelps and Lochte went one-two at the US trials, with the good friends both going under world-record time. Phelps set the world mark of 4 minutes, 5.25 seconds, while Lochte’s time was the second-fastest ever.
Phelps beat Lochte at last year’s world championships by more than 3.5 seconds.
Still, Lochte is considered a threat to Phelps’ gold rush in both the 400m and 200m individual medleys.
The crowd came alive for the women’s 100m butterfly, where China sent out its first two swimmers of the competition. Zhou Yafei tied Christine Magnuson of the US for second-quickest in 57.70 seconds.
Leading the way was Jess Schipper of Australia in 57.58 seconds.
The other Chinese, Xu Yanwei, was 32nd and did not advance to the semi-finals. Neither did Otylia Jedrzejczak of Poland, the silver medalist in Athens, who finished four-hundredths of a second out of the 16th and last spot.
Elaine Breeden of the US moved on in sixth place, as did world champion Libby Trickett of Australia, who was 12th.
Larsen Jensen of the US advanced to the 400m freestyle final as the fastest qualifier in 3 minutes, 43.10 seconds.
China really had something to cheer and wave its red flags about when countryman Zhang Lin out-touched world champion Park Tae-hwan of South Korea to win his heat. Zhang was second overall in 3 minutes, 43.32 seconds.
Grant Hackett will try to give Australia their third consecutive victory in the 400m free, but he’ll have to make up time in the final after advancing in fifth place. Countryman Ian Thorpe won it in 2000 and 2004, but has since retired.
Shohei Ohtani and his wife arrived in South Korea with his Los Angeles Dodgers teammates yesterday ahead of their season-opening games with the San Diego Padres next week. Ohtani, wearing a black training suit and a cap backwards, was the first Dodgers player who showed up at the arrival gate of Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul. His wife, Mamiko Tanaka, walked several steps behind him. As a crowd of fans, many wearing Dodgers jerseys, shouted his name and cheered slogans, Ohtani briefly waved his hand, but did not say anything before he entered a limousine bus with his wife. Fans held placards
Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals at the All England Open, beating Kim Ga-eun of South Korea 21-17, 21-15. With the win, Tai earned a semi-final against China’s He Bingjiao, who beat Michelle Li of Canada 21-9, 21-9. Defending champion An Se-young defeated India’s P.V. Sindhu 21-19, 21-11. An on Wednesday cruised into the second round, unlike last year’s men’s winner, Li Shifeng, who suffered a shock defeat. South Korea’s An, the world No. 1, overcame Taiwan’s Hsu Wen-chi 21-17, 21-16 to set up the match against Sindhu. In other women’s singles matches, Taiwan’s Sung Shuo-yun lost 21-18, 24-22 against Carolina Marin of
EYEING TOP SPOT: A victory in today’s final against Storm Hunter and Katerina Siniakova would return 38-year-old Hsieh Su-wei to the world No. 1 ranking Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens on Thursday secured a spot in the women’s doubles finals at the BNP Paribas Open after dispatching Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez 6-2, 7-6 (7/5) at Indian Wells. Hsieh and her Belgian partner Mertens, who won the Australian Open in late January, coasted through the first set after breaking their opponents’ serve twice, but found the going tougher in the second. Both pairs could only muster one break point over 12 games, neither of which were converted, leaving the set to be decided by a tiebreaker. Hsieh and Mertens took a 6-3 lead,
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