Michael Phelps Overtakes Ian Thorpe as No.1

(Phelps in lane 3 and Thorpe in lane 4 at the Athens Olympics)

AMERICAN superstar Michael Phelps has grabbed the world No.1 ranking and US Open 200m freestyle record from Ian Thorpe -- and the Thorpedo's world 200m record is in danger.
As Thorpe struggles to regain fitness in Los Angeles after illness and injury setbacks, his chief rival is in ominous form leading into the US trials in two weeks. Phelps set a 200m US Open record -- the fastest time set in an American pool -- of 1min 45.50sec at the US southern sectionals in Athens, Georgia, on Saturday.

That trumps Thorpe's time of 1:45.63 at Long Beach in California in June, 2004, and his winning time at the Australian trials in February, 1:46.62, which was the fastest time this year.

Phelps was only marginally outside his best time, 1:45.20, set when he succeeded Thorpe as the world champion in Montreal last year.

Given that he is not yet fully rested, many pundits believe the 21-year-old American could challenge Thorpe's benchmark of 1:44.06 at Irvine in California in the first week of August.

Phelps' coach Bob Bowman has always regarded Thorpe's 200m mark as one of the very best world records in the books, which makes it all the more attractive to the ambitious duo.

At the very least Phelps should join Thorpe and 2000 Olympic champion Pieter van den Hoogenband as the only men to have broken 1:45 for the distance. The Dutchman will reveal his form at the European titles the same week.

The US summer nationals will double as trials for both the Pan Pacific championships in Canada next month, and the world championships in Melbourne in March.

Phelps appears ready to make another splash after three superb performances in Athens. He set the second-fastest 200m butterfly time this year (1:55.65) and a personal best 100m backstroke (54.15sec), which ranks him No.3 in the world.

Meanwhile Thorpe's return is being hampered by continued soreness in the hand he broke in a fall at home in Sydney in May.

The good news for the Australian team came in the 200m backstroke at the Janet Evans Invitational in California yesterday, where Commonwealth Games gold medallist Joanna Fargus dominated.

Fargus, who trains with Thorpe's new coach Dave Salo at the University of Southern California, led from start to finish in 2min13.67sec.
(Source:News.com.AU)