Michael Phelps

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PHELPS’ 8-GOLD MEDAL QUEST NOW LIKELY TO SUCCEED

Michael Phelps has almost done it. One more day to go, two more races to swim, the 400m pictureIM and the 4x100m medley relay, which he will predictably win. Then the mission that the American ace has imposed to himself - to win eight gold medals in eight days – will be accomplished. On Saturday night, over the 100m butterfly, Phelps beat the toughest opponent, his compatriot Ian Crocker, the defending champion and the hardest obstacle. Michael bagged his sixth gold medal, the less predictable one. This is his 16th World Championships gold medal.

Crocker had the better first 50m of the two, turning 0.05 outside world record pace in 23.56 with Phelps in third place. With Phelps storming down the second 50m, Crocker appeared to be heading to his second consecutive world title but a slow glide to the wall cost him the gold. Meanwhile, Phelps finished on a full stroke to win his first world title in the 100m butterfly. In a repeat of the result at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens (GRE) Crocker had to settle for the silver in 50.82.

At the previous World Championships, in Montreal, Crocker had won the race in 50.40 while Phelps came in second in 51.65. This Saturday, the American pair exchanged positions. Phelps won in a time of 50.77, a personal best, while a dismayed Crocker finished a mere 0.05 seconds behind.

At the end of the seventh competition day Phelps had accumulated 13 first places out of 14 starts. He missed out victory, and came in third, only in the 100m butterfly semi-final on Friday night. He has swum six finals capturing six gold medals (four individual, two relay) and establishing four world records (three individual, one relay) and a championships record (relay).

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Phelps Collects His 6th Gold, But Won't Get 8

MELBOURNE, Australia, -- Everything seemed to be going according to plan when Michael Phelps lost his quest for a record eight gold medals at the 12th FINA World Championships. He wasn't even in the pool when he suffered his first defeat of the week. The unthinkable happened in a near-empty Rod Laver Arena Sunday morning, hours before the event's evening finale.

Phelps had won six gold medals and hoped for two more on the last day of competition. He had just advanced in Sunday's 400-medley relay heats, ensuring a place in that evening's final and seemingly setting the stage for making history. But his plans were upset by his teammates about an hour later.

Michael Phelps is eyeing one more gold after his teammates ruined his chances at two more.

The U.S. 4x100 medley relay team was disqualified during the morning heats when Ian Crocker left early on the butterfly leg. The most Phelps can win now is seven.

Officials ruled Crocker left 0.01 of a second earlier than the allowable start time. Crocker got off the blocks with a reaction time of -0.04 of a second. The most allowed is -0.03.

There was a sad irony in Crocker's inadvertent mistake, as he had been figured the athlete most likely to defeat Phelps in an individual race here. But Phelps had claimed his sixth medal Saturday night in the 100-meter butterfly after chasing down Crocker over the last 50 meters. That loss pushed Crocker into the Sunday morning heats.

"It is disappointing," said Neil Walker, who swam the freestyle leg. "Michael is doing something nobody has ever done before . . . It's just bad luck."

Things had looked so good at the finish. The U.S. team of Ryan Lochte, Scott Usher, Crocker and Walker had easily won its heat. The men had taken the lead over Japan on what appeared to be a fabulous leg by Crocker. At first, no one knew what had happened.

"Nobody likes to do that at any time," U.S. team coach Eddie Reese said. "Ian is very, very sensitive. This is real tough on him."

Though Phelps clearly did not expect a hitch in Sunday's relay, the last race of the morning, he seemed keenly aware of the challenge of making it through the last day of competition.

Sunday "is a big day," Phelps said after the race. "I know that. It's something I'm ready for, something I've been looking forward to for some time. I'm excited to hit the water."

He had to do it shortly after 10 a.m.

Just over 12 hours after grinning with satisfaction on another medal stand, Phelps stood poolside in a near-empty arena wearing his standard pre-race glare, wanting to swim well enough to advance to the finals of the 400 individual medley, but not so well he drained his already aching body before the evening's finals. Phelps did not struggle to qualify Sunday morning.

He did, however, struggle to get out of bed.

"I'm hurting a little bit," Phelps said. But "this is the most important day. This is the final exam of the week, the last big test for me.

"I don't really want to think about [the fatigue]. It's been a long week. But the most important thing now, besides being tired and feeling sore, it's getting up tonight and racing hard."

Phelps had concluded Saturday's race without so much as a pumped fist. He had stood hanging on the side of the pool, his mouth agape and chest heaving as he gasped for air. He had finished in 50.77 seconds, just .05 ahead of Crocker, who had hoped to win his third straight world title in the event. Though it represented the first race in five days in which Phelps did not participate in a world record, much had been achieved with that one victory.

Phelps tied Ian Thorpe's 2001 record for world titles in one meet. He surpassed Aussie Grant Hackett as the most decorated swimmer in world championship history with 19 medals. His 16 golds are also tops. And he beat -- barely -- his most challenging adversary.

Reese wasn't sure where Phelps was when the disqualification happened, though he speculated that he might have been already back at the team hotel. Phelps said he had done nothing all week besides swim, eat and sit in his room watching television to conserve energy for the finals.

Walker speculated that Crocker, disappointed over his finish Saturday, might have been trying to compensate for it in the morning. Crocker did not speak with reporters.

"It was probably a little bit of overexcitement," said Walker, who elected to speak for the team. "It's just the way it goes. Sport is like that . . . We saw the relays and it looked fine. [When informed of the disqualification] it was disbelief. We thought, 'Okay, they made a mistake.' "

There was no mistake.

"They do tape all of the starts and we looked at the tapes," Reese said. "I trust the machine."

After a few more solitary hours at the hotel, Phelps will return later for his last chance at gold, the 400 IM. Phelps, who topped all qualifiers in the morning, is expected to be tested Sunday night by Hungary's Laszlo Cseh, who took gold in the event at the 2005 world championships, when Phelps opted out of the event. Tunisian Oussama Mellouli also could challenge, and Lochte can't be counted out.

"So far, we're six for six in the way we want to go," he said. "We're definitely heading in the right direction, but [sunday] is a hard day.

"I have a lot on my plate."

Just a bit less than he thought.

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New World Record :hell yea!:

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Michael & Ryan Lochte

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Michael holds up his trophy for male swimmer of the championships at the World Swimming Championships in Melbourne

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World Record #5, Seventh Gold For Michael Phelps

(AP) MELBOURNE, Australia Michael Phelps equaled the most hallowed mark in swimming, winning his seventh gold medal at the world championships Sunday with his fifth world record.

Phelps smashed his own standard in the 400-meter individual medley by 2.04 seconds, becoming the most successful swimmer ever at the worlds.

The 21-year-old American joined countryman Mark Spitz as the only swimmers ever to win that many golds at a major international meet. Of course, Spitz' achievement came on the sport's grandest stage -- the Olympics.

Phelps hopes to equal the feat or go one better at next year's Beijing Games.

A Polish swimmer staged the biggest upset of the last night in the grueling 1,500 freestyle, where Aussie Grant Hackett's run of four consecutive titles ended.

Mateusz Sawrymowicz won the gold medal in 14 minutes, 45.94 seconds against the fastest field in history.

Yury Prilukov of Russia took the silver. David Davies of Britain earned the bronze.

Hackett struggled home seventh, ending a disappointing meet for the soon-to-be-married world record holder. He earned a bronze in the 400 free and was seventh in the 800 free.

American Larsen Jensen was fourth, and teammate Erik Vendt eighth.

Katie Hoff looked like a chip off Phelps' block in winning the women's 400 IM. The 18-year-old out of the same North Baltimore club that launched Phelps set a world record of 4:32.89.

Hoff won by an even bigger margin than Phelps -- 7.25 seconds ahead of Yana Martynova of Russia. Stephanie Rice of Australia settled for bronze.

Just like Phelps, Hoff won the race on the breaststroke portion, when she dipped under world-record pace and opened a huge lead.

Phelps and Hoff accounted for the night's only world records.

American swimmers set 11 of the meet's 14 marks.

Phelps never got a chance at an eighth gold in Melbourne after his U.S. teammates were shockingly disqualified in the 400 medley relay preliminaries Sunday morning.

Ian Crocker, who had been in position to derail Phelps in the 100 fly before losing to his rival, dove in too early on an exchange, causing the DQ.

Without the heavily favored United States in the medley relay, it was a wide-open race that had the screaming crowd on its feet throughout. Australians Matt Welsh, Brenton Rickard, Andrew Lauterstein and Eamon Sullivan out-touched Japan by 0.23 seconds for the gold. Russia finished third.

Phelps was gracious in his first public comments about Crocker's gaffe.

"When Team USA comes into a swim meet, we come as a team and we exit as a team," he said. "There are things that don't happen exactly as we want it to, but it's better to happen now than next year."

Still, Phelps closed out his eight-day run in style, winning the 400 IM in 4:06.22 -- easily improving his old standard of 4:08.26 set at the 2004 Athens Olympics.

Ryan Lochte took the silver -- a whopping 3.52 seconds behind his teammate -- for his fifth medal of the meet. Luca Marin of Italy earned the bronze.

Phelps and Lochte dueled through much of the 400 IM. Phelps was under world-record pace after 150 meters of butterfly. Lochte narrowly took over the lead at 200 meters during the backstroke, his specialty.

But Phelps roared back on breaststroke, again dipping under record pace.

"That's probably my most improved stroke over the last six months to a year," he said.

He went 1.49 seconds lower on the first of his two freestyle laps before powering home with the red line that indicates he world-record pace lapping at his feet.

Phelps checked his time and leaned heavily on the lane rope, holding up his right index finger in the No. 1 sign.

"That was my last race, so I wanted to finish strong," he said.

Phelps' five world records equaled the number he broke at the 2003 worlds in Barcelona. Back then, he won six edals, including four gold.

As Phelps soaked in the applause during his victory stroll, Crocker looked on pensively from the stands, chewing gum.

Phelps stopped to hug his mother Debbie, who showered him with kisses and whispered in her only son's ear. Before aving her, he handed over his bouquet.

Lochte couldn't resist breaking out his gold, silver and diamond-crusted grill for the victory walk, getting cheers and aughs from other swimmers when he flashed the metal mouth caps he wore earlier in the meet on a dare from his teammates.

Libby Lenton of Australia won her fifth gold medal, taking the women's 50 freestyle in 24.53 seconds. American Natalie oughlin was last, closing out a five-medal showing, including two golds.

The evening opened with finals in two non-Olympic events -- the men's 50 backstroke and women's 50 breaststroke.

Gerhard Zandberg of South Africa won the men's race. American Jessica Hardy took the women's title, upsetting Leisel Jones of Australia, who won the 100 and 200 breaststrokes. American Tara Kirk earned the bronze, her third medal of the meet.

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MICHAEL ROSENBERG: Phelps might be the top athlete in the world

When Tiger Woods arrives at the Masters this week, he will set off another round of debate about whether he or Roger Federer is the world's most dominant athlete.

I love watching Woods and Federer, but we need to add a name to the discussion.

Michael Phelps.

Phelps is making a mockery of the world championships in Australia. He broke three individual world records in three days. As of this writing, he has six gold medals -- two from relay races -- with a chance for seven. He had just set a world record with water flooding his goggles, which was only a problem if he wanted to see.

He is basically better than everybody at every stroke. At this point, the only thing Phelps hasn't done with water is walk on it.

"He's like a mutant or something," American breaststroker Tara Kirk told the Baltimore Sun. "He's just going for best times now, and they happen to be world records."

The mutant (or something) lives in Ann Arbor. Yet Phelps is curiously under the radar around Detroit. Neither Detroit newspaper sent a reporter to Australia, and as far as I can tell, Phelps has hardly been a hot topic of discussion.

Phelps didn't grow up in Michigan. But he does live here, and since this is such a sports-mad state -- and one that takes such pride in its own -- he should be appreciated for what he is doing. If he stays healthy, Phelps will likely leave Beijing next summer with people calling him the best swimmer in history.

And since more Earthlings swim than play golf or tennis, he has a strong argument as the best athlete in the world

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Thank you very much Luno!

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You're welcome

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