Phelps wins 6th gold in record-setting swim

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BEIJING – Michael Phelps made it 6-for-6 at the Beijing Olympics, closing in on Mark Spitz with another world-record swim Friday morning.

Phelps dominated right from the start of the 200-meter individual medley and powered away to win in 1 minute, 54.23 seconds. He knocked off his own mark of 1:54.80 set at last month’s U.S. trials, his sixth world record of the games.

Ryan Lochte tried to pull off a daunting double, going against Phelps just 29 minutes after swimming the final of the 200 backstroke. He couldn’t keep up, though he did hold on for bronze. Laszlo Cseh of Hungary picked up his third silver of the games – all of them trailing Phelps.

Phelps hung on the lane rope in a familiar pose, admiring his time while his rivals gasped for breath. He extended his right hand to Lochte in the next lane, and the two friends shook hands and patted each other on the head.

Lochte got quite a consolation prize: a world record and the first individual gold medal of his career in the backstroke. The laid-back Floridian edged teammate Aaron Peirsol in 1:53.94 to break the mark he shared with Peirsol.

Lochte was known as “Mr. Runner-up” for his frequent second-place finishes to Phelps and Peirsol. Then, he stunned Peirsol at last year’s world championships in 1:54.32 and Peirsol matched the time in beating Lochte at the U.S. Olympic trials last month.

Peirsol won the 100 back in Beijing, but failed to match his backstroke double from Athens four years ago. He earned the silver in 1:54.33, while Russia’s Arkady Vyatchanin claimed the bronze.

Phelps is just one gold away from tying Spitz’s record of seven gold medals at the 1972 Munich Olympics. The 23-year-old from Baltimore won his semifinal in the 100 butterfly about a half-hour after his win in the 200 IM and will try to equal the grandest of Olympic standards on Saturday morning.

If all goes according to plan, the record-breaker would come on Sunday’s final day of swimming in the 400 medley relay. The Americans will be heavily favored for gold in that one.

But Portland, Maine, native Ian Crocker, who took second in his semifinal, is eager to take Phelps down in the 100 fly.

“Michael has his goals and I have mine,” Crocker said. “I don’t think anyone should get in the way of what I want. I’m not going to feel bad if I go out and race my heart out and end up winning.”

If he’s going to beat Phelps, he had sure better pick up the pace. For the preliminaries Thursday night, Crocker inexplicably came out wearing a jammer – a suit that goes only from the waist to just above the knees – and put up the 13th-fastest time, coming perilously close to missing out on the semifinals.

“He wanted to try it,” said his coach, Eddie Reese. “It’s a physical and psychological disadvantage.”

Not even his coach sounded very convincing when asked whether Crocker has a chance to derail history.

“I hope so,” Reese said, “but Michael’s a human rocket at the moment.”

Phelps’ last individual race will be the 100 fly on Sunday. Considering Crocker is the world record-holder, this would seem to be a daunting challenge.

But Phelps has beaten the soft-spoken 25-year-old at almost every big meet during the last four years, including the 2004 Athens Olympics, world championships and the U.S. Olympic trials.

Crocker sure didn’t look too strong in the prelims, his only individual event of the games. He touched in a sluggish time of 51.95 seconds, just a tenth of a second ahead of the final qualifier and at least a full stroke off his world record of 50.40, set three long years ago at the worlds in Montreal.

“That’s a swim to get me into the meet a little bit,” Crocker said with a shrug. “It’s been a long week waiting and watching a lot of ups and downs. Finally, I’m in the meet and I can relax and do my race a little bit better.”

In the 100 fly, Phelps qualified second overall in 50.87 seconds. He trailed Milorad Cavic of Serbia, who won his heat in an Olympic record of 50.76.

“That was OK,” Phelps said. “I didn’t have much speed the first 50, but I think I came home pretty good. I just need to put myself out there a little more in the first 50 and I’ll be OK.”

He sure didn’t sound worried.

“It’s a prelim. Nothing really counts until finals,” Phelps said. “I’ll just try to set myself up for a good final and go from there.”

The only other event on Phelps’ remaining schedule is the 400-medley relay, an Olympic event the Americans have never lost in the pool (Australia was the gold medalist in 1980 when the U.S. boycotted).

Considering the depth of the Americans over all strokes, it likely would take a monumental blunder for them to claim anything but gold in that event, something along the lines of Crocker’s botched start that disqualified the Americans in the preliminaries of last year’s worlds. It cost Phelps a chance to go for his eighth victory in Melbourne.

Assuming the improbable doesn’t happen, the final event Sunday would be the culmination of Phelps’ bid to take down Mark Spitz’s record of seven golds at the 1972 Munich Olympics.

But nothing is a given. Just ask Americans Katie Hoff and Kate Ziegler, who stunningly washed out of the Olympics in the 800 freestyle preliminaries.

Hoff was 11th overall and Ziegler 10th. Both finished more than eight seconds off their personal best times.

“I don’t think many people bet on that,” Ziegler said.

The 19-year-old Hoff may have been trying to do too much, attempting a grueling schedule that included five individual races and one relay. She won a silver and two bronzes, but had two fourth-place finishes and wasn’t even that good in her final race.

“She gave it everything she had,” said Jack Bauerle, head coach of the U.S. women’s team. “She was just pretty much out of gas.”

Ziegler is world champion in the 800 but hardly looked like it. She felt strong over the first half of the race, then suddenly realized she wasn’t going to have enough energy to finish strong.

“Some days, your body just doesn’t work,” Ziegler said. “My body picked a bad time not to work.”

Crocker and Lochte can only hope for some sort of slip-up from Phelps.

“The pressure is on him because he is the one with all the expectations,” Crocker said. “We’re the underdogs. That’s a good place to be.”

Lochte’s win in the 200 backstroke was the 20th world record set in swimming during the Olympics, with two days still to go.

Rebecca Soni gave the U.S. women’s swim team a much-needed boost, setting a world record in the 200 breaststroke with an upset of Australia’s Leisel Jones.

Soni had already claimed a surprising silver behind Jones in the 100 breast, a race she wasn’t even supposed to be in. She took over when Jessica Hardy failed a doping test at the U.S. trials and was dropped from the team.

Jones was out front over the first 100, but Soni came on strong at the end, finishing a full body length ahead of the Aussie in 2:20.22. She beat Jones’ mark of 2:20.54, set two 21/2 years ago in Melbourne.

Jones claimed silver and Norway’s Sara Nordenstam took bronze.