Michael Phelps has never missed a chance to win gold in the Water Cube. The American superfish unsurprisingly took his sixth gold in men's 200m individual medley here on Friday along with a sixth world record in a row.
Phelps met no challenge at all as he led the race since jumping into the water and updated his own world record to one minute 54.23 seconds at leisure. It's the eight time he broke the world record of the event since 2003.
Hungarian versatile swimmer Laszlo Cseh and Phelps' teammate Ryan Lochte managed to trail behind the wunderkind, but had to settle for second and third again as they did in the 400m individual medley final on Sunday.
"I just wanted to step on it in the first 50 (meters) a little bit and try and get out to an early lead. I knew that was a hard double for Ryan. I knew, in the first half if I got a big enough lead I thought I could hang on and that's all I wanted to do."
Cseh's silver medal winning time is 1:56.52, only 0.01 second ahead of the 23-year-old Lochte, who has just tasted a sensational win 30 minutes ago in the men's 200m backstroke final by dethroning teammate Aaron Peirsol under world record pace.
Lochte followed Phelps to take the silver in the event both at Athens Olympics and last year's World Championships. But the laidback talent has never wished that Phelps was not competing in his events.
"If he wasn't in this sport and swimming, I don't think I'd be as good. He is up there and he makes me become better and stronger in training. Without him I wouldn't be standing here today. I think I push him as well."
Phelps became the most successful Olympian in history with 11 gold medals after victories in the 200m butterfly and 4x200m freestyle relay finals on Wednesday.
Now, the superfish has added six to the six gold medals he won in Athens and overtaken Mark Spitz, Carl Lewis, Paavo Nurmi and Larysa Latynina, who won nine Olympic golds each in their career.
Phelps' quest of eight gold medals in Beijing continued well as he cruised into the final of the men's 100m butterfly final for swimming the second fastest qualifying time in the semifinals just minutes after the medal ceremony of the 200m individual medley.
"I had literally five minutes in between the awards ceremony ending and switching to my race stuff, putting my cap on and marching straight out. There was no time. Now I've got a lot of time to rest. I've got 18 hours to get ready for tomorrow," said Phelps.
"It was definitely a tough race, with Milorad and Ian having great races," said Phelps. "Hopefully I'll be able to stay closer in the first 50 (meters) than yesterday to Milorad. If I'm there at the 50 (meters), I'll be there at the end."
Serbian Milorad Cavic advanced into the final with the fastest qualifying time of 50.92 seconds as world record holder Ian Crocker from the United States trailed him in the same semi in 51.27 seconds.
The 24-year-old Cavic updated the Olympic record to 50.76 seconds in Thursday's heats while Phelps finished behind him in next lane.
(Xinhua News Agency August 15, 2008)