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OMAHA, Nebraska: The US Olympic swimming trials
produced a brace of backstroke world records—for Aaron Peirsol and
Natalie Coughlin—and two more Beijing Games berths for Michael
Phelps on Tuesday.
World and Olympic champion
Peirsol lowered his own 100-meter backstroke world record with a
time of 52.89 seconds to set up a defense of the title he won in
Athens.
Coughlin broke the women’s
100-m back world record for the second time in two days, punching
her ticket to Beijing with a victory in 58.97 seconds—the first
woman to swim the event in less than 59 seconds.
They were the fifth and sixth
world records to be set in three days in the temporary pool at the
Qwest Center as American swimmers put on a formidable display of
strength.
Phelps continued his progress
toward an assault on Mark Spitz’s record of seven gold medals at
one Olympics with a victory in the 200-m freestyle, securing his
berth in the individual event and the 4x200-m free relay.
Phelps clocked 1:44.10, with
Peter Vanderkaay finishing second in 1:45.85.
--AFP
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