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U.S. Smashes Relay Record, Giving Phelps 2nd Gold

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By PAUL NEWBERRY

The Associated Press

Published: August 11, 2008

Updated: 08/11/2008 12:11 am

BEIJING - Jason Lezak outtouched Alain Bernard of France at the wall Monday to give the United States a victory in the 400-meter freestyle relay and keep alive Michael Phelps' bid for eight Olympic gold medals.

Lezak overtook the Frenchman to win in 3 minutes, 8.24 seconds, breaking the world record of 3:12.23 set by the Americans in Sunday's preliminaries.

France took the silver in 3:08.32. Australia earned the bronze in 3:09.91.

Phelps' hopes of breaking Mark Spitz's record of seven golds in a single games appeared doomed when the French took over the lead at the 250 mark. They were 4.03 seconds under world-record pace at 350 meters before Lezak, the oldest American male swimmer at 32, rallied over the closing strokes.

Meanwhile, fellow American Katie Hoff was upset in the 400-meter freestyle, losing the gold medal to Rebecca Adlington of Britain.

Adlington overhauled Hoff down the stretch to win in 4 minutes, 3.22 seconds today. Hoff took the silver in 4:03.29. Adlington's teammate Joanne Jackson earned the bronze in 4:03.52. Defending champion Laure Manaudou finished eighth and last.

Hoff is 0-for-2 in finals so far, taking a bronze in the 400 individual medley.

Two more world marks fell when Kosuke Kitajima of Japan finished off American Brendan Hansen's hopes of an individual medal, winning the 100 breaststroke in 58.91 seconds. Kitajima let out a scream after breaking Hansen's 2-year-old record of 59.13.

Hansen was left without a medal, fading to fourth behind silver medalist Alexander Dale Oen of Norway and Hugues Duboscq of France, who took bronze.

Kirsty Coventry didn't even bother waiting until a final to set a record in the 100 backstroke. The Zimbabwean won her semifinal heat in 58.77, taking down Natalie Coughlin's mark of 58.97 set at the U.S. trials last month.

They'll go head to head in Tuesday morning's final. Coughlin won her heat in 59.43 with a nice, comfortable swim.

Phelps, who already has won one gold medal in record time, took care of another little matter in the 200 free, moving on to the final with the fourth-fastest time of the semis. Trying to save as much energy as possible for the leadoff leg of the relay, the American touched in 1:46.28 to finish behind teammate Peter Vanderkaay (1:45.76) and South Korea's Park Tae-hwan (1:45.99).

Jean Basson of South Africa also went faster in the other heat, winning in 1:46.13.

"I wanted to go 1:45, and if it weren't for that messed-up finish I would have done it," Phelps said, hustling off to get ready for the big race. "I just wanted to save as much energy as possible for the relay."

Putting all his hopes of beating Kitajima in the 100, Hansen wasn't close to the Japanese star, finishing 0.66 seconds behind.

Coventry put down quite a challenge to Coughlin. Then again, Coughlin has been known to rise to the challenge - when Hayley McGregory broke her world record in the prelims at the U.S. trials, Coughlin took it back in the next heat.

Now, Coventry has it, and Coughlin can't be too happy about that.

"I'm very excited. It was a great swim," Coventry said. "I've just got to go home and take care of myself. It's going to be a tight final. ... Natalie's just so good at racing and planning out her races, so I just expect nothing but fast, fast swimming tomorrow."

Libby Trickett of Australia just missed another world record in the women's 100 butterfly, winning gold with a time of 56.73. American Christine Magnuson won silver (57.10) and another Aussie, Jess Schipper, took the bronze (57.25).

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