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Hoff, Phelps Continue To Dazzle In Trials

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The Associated Press

Published: July 3, 2008

OMAHA, Neb. - OMAHA, Neb. - Wow, that kid from suburban Baltimore is something.

No, we're not talking about Michael Phelps.

Nineteen-year-old Katie Hoff stole the show at the U.S. Olympic swimming trials, winning two events about 45 minutes apart Wednesday night - and setting American records in both.

Phelps reached the halfway point to setting his program for the Beijing Games, earning his third individual title of the trials in the 200-meter butterfly after also locking up a spot in at least one relay. The 23-year-old is right on pace in his bid to go after eight wins in China and break Mark Spitz's 36-year-old record of seven golds.

The way things are going, Hoff might be just as busy as her former teammate at the North Baltimore Aquatic Club.

She added the 200 freestyle and 200 individual medley to her growing list of trials wins - rallying to beat Natalie Coughlin in the second of those, no less.

Hoff already won the 400 IM and 400 free, the latter giving her a spot in the 800 free relay. She's still got two more events to go, the 100 and 800 free, and a top four in the shorter race would get her on at least one more relay team in Beijing.

Coughlin jumped way ahead on the butterfly and backstroke legs of the individual medley, but Hoff rallied on the breaststroke and freestyle to win in 2:09.71, improving on Coughlin's American record of 2:09.77 set less than a month ago.

Making the win even more impressive: Hoff already had won the 200 freestyle in 1:55.88, beating her own U.S. record in that event of 1:56.08.

TENNIS: Roger Federer and 16 of the other top 20 men and Ana Ivanovic and 17 other top 20 women have entered the tennis tournament at next month's Beijing Olympics.

The International Tennis Federation used the ATP and WTA rankings as a guide to determine who gets the 56 direct spots in the men's and women's singles competitions. Six of the remaining eight spots in each were given out by the ITF's Olympic Committee.

WOMEN'S SOCCER: Lindsay Tarpley, Carli Lloyd, Angela Hucles and Abby Wambach scored as the United States beat Norway 4-0 in Fredrikstad, Norway, in a tuneup for the Olympic women's soccer tournament.

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