Michael Phelps breaks Games record in heats of 400
Date: 2008/08/09 22:20
By: KatiePery
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He made his intentions for these Games clear from the start, breaking his own Olympic record in the heats of the 400m individual medley.
The 23-year-old American was inside his own world-record pace after the opening butterfly leg and just 0.02 seconds outside it after the second backstroke leg.
And although he dropped off record pace after the breaststroke, he still recorded a record time of four minutes 7.82 seconds, 2.57secs outside his world record set earlier this year.
Phelps won six gold medals at the Athens Olympics four years ago, but aims to go even further in Beijing. The benchmark to beat is the one set by seven-gold tally set by American Mark Spitz in the 1972 Games.
"I saw the first few heats go out, and I kind of wanted to be the top seed for tomorrow, that is all I went out to do," Michael Phelps said following his performance in today's heat. "It's going to be a tough race between three or four of us."
Of the British swimmers, Thomas Haffield did not progress to the final in the same event, while Euan Dale also missed out.
Meanwhile, Jemma Lowe made it into Sunday's semi-final in the 100m butterfly. The 18-year-old from Hartlepool said: "It was the hardest race I have ever done, everyone was so close.
"I was trying to focus on myself and make it to the semis and I did it. I hope I can go quicker tomorrow. My personal best is 57.78 (today's quickest qualifier swam 57.58) so who knows what can happen. Tomorrow is another day."
Aberdeen's David Carry recorded a new personal best of 3:47.17 in the 400m freestyle, breaking his own British record in the process, but still failed to advance to tomorrow's final.
The 26-year-old was fifth in his heat and 15th fastest overall with team-mate Dean Milwain seventh in his heat and 21st overall.
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