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SWIMMING: Phelps swims into record books

Michael Phelps swam into history yesterday as the athlete to win the most Olympic golds ever with his 10th and 11th career gold medals — and five world records at the Beijing Games.

A day after etching his name alongside Mark Spitz and Carl Lewis, Paavo Nurmi and Larysa Latynina with gold No. 9, Phelps claimed the record all to himself when he won the 200m butterfly yesterday morning. An hour later, he returned to swim the leadoff of a runaway victory by the US 800 freestyle relay team, which shattered the old mark by more than four seconds.

“He is just another person, but maybe from a different planet,’’ said Alexander Sukhorukov, who swam the anchor leg for the second-place Russians.

Phelps claimed the 200 butterfly record in 1 minute, 52.03 seconds, lowering his old mark of 1:52.09 from last year.

Laszlo Cseh of Hungary took the silver in 1:52.70. Takeshi Matsuda of Japan got the bronze in 1:52.97.

In his individual event, Phelps had a problem with his goggles.

But that didn’t keep him from touching first.

No such worries in the relay. Seemingly impervious to fatigue, Phelps set a blistering pace of 1:43.31 that got the Americans rolling toward a winning time of 6:58.56 — the first team ever to break the seven-minute barrier.

Russia took the silver, more than five seconds behind the Americans. Australia won the bronze.

Phelps is now all alone at the top of the career golds list, with three more chances to stretch his lead before he leaves China. He’ll swim in the 200 individual medley, 100 fly and 400 medley relay.

In his signature stroke, Phelps was second at the first flip, then pushed it into another gear.

A pair of leaky goggles kept him from even seeing the wall as he touched.

“My goggles kept filling up with water during the race,” Phelps said. “I wanted a world record, I wanted 1:51 or better, but in the circumstances not too bad I guess.”

Still, he had two more golds and two more records before lunchtime, leaving him just three wins away from beating Spitz’s record of seven gold medals in a single games.

Three worlds records fell before Phelps walked on deck the first time.

In the semi-finals of the 100 free, Australia’s Eamon Sullivan and France’s Alain Bernard exchanged the record Sullivan set two days earlier.

In the first heat, Bernard won in 47.20 to knock down Sullivan’s mark of 47.24 from the leadoff leg of the memorable 400 free relay.

Sullivan won the second heat in 47.05, setting up a thrilling showdown in today’s final.

Then Federica Pelligrini broke the mark she set a day earlier in the women’s 200 freestyle, winning gold in 1:54.82. Sara Isakovic of Slovenia claimed the silver and China’s Pang Jiaying took bronze.

In the 200 individual medley (IM), Australia’s Stephanie Rice completed her IM sweep with another world record, her time of 2:08.45 erasing the mark of 2:08.92 set in March.

Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe took the silver and Natalie Coughlin of the US won the bronze.

An inspiring Olympic story came to an end in the semi-finals of the 200 breaststroke.

Eric Shanteau, who was diagnosed with testicular cancer just before the US Olympic trials and put off surgery until after the games, failed to advance to the final.

He finished sixth in his semi-final heat and 10th overall, 13-hundredths of a second out of the last spot into the final.

Japan’s Kosuke Kitajima was the top qualifier at 2:08.61.
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